Ashgabat, 26-30 November 2018: An intensive five-day workshop on the “Strategic Negotiation Skills” was launched by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in cooperation with SkillFocus Consultancy to strengthen soft skills of 24 specialists of the State Bank for Foreign Economic Affairs of Turkmenistan (TFEB). The event has been held as a part of implementation of the joint project of UNDP and TFEB “Support in expanding access to International Development Finance”.

The workshop trainer Ms. Shanta Nagendram, founder director of SkillFocus Consultancy, noted: “The activity of negotiating is universal to all professions. It is used as a means of achieving one’s goals in every relationship so as to succeed in our professional pursuits. A good negotiator is an asset to any organization and nation in order to negotiate for the organizational and national benefit, as well as represent their interests confidently in the domestic as well as global arena”

This workshop was designed as a skill-enhancement workshop for the managerial staff of TFEB. Another distinguishing feature of the event was that it had interactive method of learning, which allowed participants to explore the best approaches or solutions to their own specific negotiation challenges. Through this methodology, the participants were encouraged to examine how they need to enhance the quality of their personal input into any negotiation process.

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During the project implementation, UNDP with TFEB have conducted many events across the following project directions: i) improving the coordination mechanisms for national development projects financed by external borrowings; ii) formulation of the mid-term innovation development strategy of TFEB; and iii) preparation for introduction of digital banking in TFEB.