Turkmenistan’s first internet cafes opened in the capital Ashgabat today and the tightly controlled country’s new president declared that all schools will also soon have web access.

The move comes two days after officials confirmed Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov as the country’s new president. He has pledged lift some of the restriction imposed by the late autocratic leader Saparmurat Niyazov.

Under Niyazov, who ruled the gas-rich nation for two decades, access to the Internet was restricted to state and officially approved groups, embassies, accredited foreign journalists and international organisations.

Mr Berdymukhamedov won an overwhelming victory over his five contenders in the presidential vote on Sunday and was sworn in Wednesday. The vote was tightly controlled and was not monitored by foreign election observers.

Unrestricted access to the Internet was one of Mr Berdymukhamedov’s election promises, which also included educational reform, raising pensions and support for private entrepreneurship.

“We have opened internet cafes in Ashgabat, and similar ones in regional centres will follow,” Mr Berdymukhamedov said in a televised address. “Soon each public school will have web access.”

Jenet Khudaikulieva, a manager at one of two cafes equipped with government-provided computers, said that there would be no restriction on the websites that could be accessed. One hour of surfing costs about £2 – a large sum in a country where two-thirds of the population live in poverty.

Times recommends

• Tech world prepares for cut-price Apple laptops
• Google takes sober look at drunken e-mails
• BlackBerry Storm joins the touchscreen scrum