Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov will pay a four-day state visit to China starting on Tuesday. Berdymukhamedov was born on June 29, 1957 in the Babarab village in the Ashgabat region of the former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan. He graduated from the Turkmen State Medical Institute in 1979, and later received a PhD in medical sciences in Moscow. Berdymukhamedov started work at the Ministry of Health and Medical Industry of Turkmenistan in 1979. In December 1997, he was named minister of health. In April 2001, he became deputy prime minister while concurrently holding the portfolio of health minister. On Dec. 21, 2006, Berdymukhamedov was appointed acting president of Turkmenistan and the supreme commander of the country's armed forces by the State Security Council and the Cabinet Berdymukhamedov won the presidential election on Feb. 11, 2007, and was sworn into office three days later.