ASHGABAT (Reuters) – Turkey’s Polimex Construction has won a $2 bln+ contract to build a new airport serving the Turkmen capital, an Ashgabat official announced on January 12, as Ankara continues to build ties with the isolated but energy rich Central Asian country.

The Turkmen government official, who requested anonymity, gave no further details, reports Reuters. The construction of the airport should begin this month and be completed in August 2016, the official Neitralny Turkmenistan newspaper reported earlier. It will have a capacity to serve 1,600 passengers per hour.

Polimex has already built a modern airport near the Caspian Sea port of Turkmenbashi in western Turkmenistan and completed a number of other projects in the nearby resort area of Avaza and in the capital Ashgabat.

Polimex’s contract is the largest ever single construction project secured by a Turkish firm in a foreign market. The second largest overseas construction project secured so far this year is a copper processing facility in Kazakhstan worth $633 mln.

In a written statement on Saturday, Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan said Turkish construction firms “made a quick start to 2013,” securing projects worth $2.9 bln in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Georgia within the first 10 days alone. Turkish firms secured projects worth $26.1 bln overseas last year. Turkmenistan had the largest share with $4.9 bln in 2012. Çağlayan did not provide details regarding the Georgian construction project. But Turkish firms are known to have increased their focus on housing projects in the Caspian country.