Moving to Ashgabat

Today we look at moving to Ashgabat in Turkmenistan from Taipei in Taiwan. We highlight cost of living and other major differences likely to be experienced in our series of short blogs on moving between different international locations.
In Ashgabat people speak Turkmen and Russian. In Taipei people speak Mandarin Chinese (official) and Min Nan Chinese (Taiwanese).

Ashgabat is the capital and largest city of Turkmenistan. Taipei is the largest city in Taiwan and is the de facto capital of the Republic of China. Ashgabat is primarily a government and administrative center. The principal industries are cotton textiles and metal working. As the capital of the Republic of China, Taipei has been at the center of rapid economic development in the country and has now become one of the global cities in the production of high technology and its components.

The overall cost of living rank in Ashgabat is 187 out of 300 global locations, which equates it with low cost of living locations.  An expatriate moving from Taipei to Ashgabat will experience a change in cost of living of -20.3%.
In terms of the hardship people are likely to experience, assessed in global terms, Ashgabat is ranked as a high degree of hardship location with a hardship index of 30% compared to Taipei with a hardship index of 20% which is a some hardship location.

Source: Cost of Living Ashgabat Turkmenistan as at July 2011.