Armenia's Economic Pulse

[Armanen]

Re: Armenia's Economic Pulse

Armenia Seeks Donor Aid For War-Ravaged Border Regions

By Hovannes Shoghikian

The government will ask Western donors to provide more than $38 million for its new plan to rehabilitate Armenia’s border regions severely damaged during the war with Azerbaijan, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Gagik Yeganian, head of the State Migration Agency, said the government has drawn up a three-year program that envisages the reconstruction and repair of more than 18,000 homes and the resettlement of more than a thousand internally displaced persons (IDPs) in those areas. “This is a rather ambitious but substantiated program,” he told a news conference.

The 1991-1994 war in Nagorno-Karabakh rapidly spread to Armenia’s long border with Azerbaijan. The fighting inflicted serious damage on villages and towns on either side of the heavily militarized frontier, forcing thousands of their residents to flee their homes. Regular exchanges of automatic and sniper fire between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces have kept many of them from returning home after a Russian-mediated truce halted the large-scale fighting in May 1994. Thousands of hectares of scarce agricultural land remain uncultivated in the border regions for the same reason.

According to Yeganian, more than 2,000 Armenian IDPs are now ready to return to their pre-war homes. Under the government program, each returning family would get a one-time payment, equivalent to more than $700, to buy crop seeds and farming equipment, he said.

Yeganian added that those families whose houses were completely destroyed by shelling would be paid $7,700 each to rebuild them. There are almost 1,700 such houses across the country, he said.

Yeganian said another 16,500 homes were damaged to varying degrees during the fighting. The government wants to pay their owners $1,500 each. “This will be done not only for the returnees but those who actually live there,” the official said.

Yeganian did not specify which concrete donor agency would be approached for funding. Negotiations with potential donors have yet to begin, he said.

From http://www.armenialiberty.org/armeni...A5F2876AC3.ASP

Good news! But one must ask, why wasn't this done sooner?

[Federate]

Re: Armenia's Economic Pulse

Good news! But one must ask, why wasn't this done sooner?

I was wondering too. It seems we're in no rush to re-settle any territories... not on Armenia's borders, not in Shushi nor in the liberated territories around Artsakh. Oh well at least we're finally working on at least two of these.

This is being cooperated with the diaspora cause where I live, we held fundraisers a few months back that aimed at rebuilding the border villages of Armenia.

[Federate]

Re: Armenia's Economic Pulse

ABOUT 14 % ECONOMIC GROWTH EXPECTED IN KARABAKH CURRENT YEAR

YEREVAN, 01.10.08. DE FACTO. In 2005-2007 economic growth in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic made 11 % at an average.
According to DE FACTO own correspondent in Stepanakert, NKR Minister of Finance Spartac Tevosian stated it at a sitting of the NKR government. In his words, 13, 8 % growth is expected in the Republic this year. An average annual growth of GNP is forecast within the limits of 1 4%. It should be added that 15, 7 % of GNP is currently ensured at the expense of economy’s agrarian sector.
The Minister of Finance said tendency of consumer prices’ growth had been maintained during last years. In 2000-2007 it made 4, 3 % at an average and was conditioned by the world prices’ influence.
In 2009-2011 NKR state budget’s own revenues are forecast in the amount of 22 milliard, 26 milliard and 30, 9 milliard drams.

From http://www.defacto.am/index.php?OP=71338289

[Federate]

Re: Armenia's Economic Pulse

Armenia to launch new NPP construction soon

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ It's time for Armenia to implement major economic projects, the RA President said.

"Such projects help resolution of strategic problems and create a possibility to boost employment. Construction of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline proved that brave initiatives can be realized thanks to consistent work and self-confidence," Serzh Sarsgyan said in his address to the parliament and the nation.

He named three projects which will in focus during the next several years. "First, it's construction of a new nuclear power plant. Second, it's construction of Iran-Armenia highway. And third, it's formation of an All-Armenian bank and investment fund which will sponsor major projects," the Armenian President said.

From http://www.panarmenian.net/news/eng/?nid=27249

[meline]

Re: Armenia's Economic Pulse

Advisor to President: Armenian Dram Most Stable Currency in RegionYEREVAN, October 6. /ARKA/.

Armenian Dram has become the most stable currency in the region in recent years, Advisor to President of Armenia on Economic Issues Vahram Nersisyants said at the opening of the second Armenian Technology Congress (ArmTech). Inflation has reached its minimum in Armenia in recent years, he said.

Nersisyants also stressed stable economic growth in the country that has ranged within 12% since 2001.

Last year a 13.8% economic growth was recorded in the country. Economic growth constituted 10.3% by August; hence, a two-digit economic growth is expected to be recorded also for the year 2008, Nersisyants said.

The Advisor welcomed attraction of investments in Armenia that will allow making the management system transparent and equal for everybody, raising the efficiency and developing the economy.

http://www.arka.am/eng/economy/2008/10/06/11460.html

[Federate]

Re: Armenia's Economic Pulse

Inflation has reached its minimum in Armenia in recent years, he said.

Speaking of inflation, I was just reading yesterday that Armenia has the lowest inflation rate of the entire former USSR. Good stuff.

[Federate]

Re: Armenia's Economic Pulse

French Mobile Giant Set To Win Armenia Tender

By Lilit Harutiunian

A world-famous subsidiary of France Telecom will be chosen to become Armenia’s third phone mobile phone operator after submitting the highest bid for a relevant government license, officials said on Monday.

The French telecom giant’s wireless division Orange was one of the three foreign companies short-listed in late August in an international tender for the right to launch and operate another mobile phone network in the country. A government commission administering the tender disclosed their bids in the presence of journalists.

It turned out that Orange is ready to pay 51.5 million euros ($72 million) for the license, well above the government’s minimum asking price of 10 million euros. The two other bidders, Tele2 AB of Sweden and the British-Irish group CEO Blackrock Communications, offered 45.6 million and 31.7 million euros respectively.

“We state that the highest bid was submitted by the France Telecom/Orange company,” said Andranik Manukian, the commission’s chairman. “According to our procedures set by the government, the commission will decide the winner within three days.”

Transport and Communications Minister Gurgen Sargsian made clear that the outcome of the bidding is a forgone conclusion. “The only document on the basis of which that decision can be made is the one-page bid that specifies the price offered by a bidder for the license,” he told reporters. “So the price is the only criterion [for choosing the winner,] and you’ve just heard it.”

Sargsian said Orange will formally receive the license in early December and could launch its network as early as next summer. “One can presume that they could start providing services within six months,” he said.

Orange is Europe’s second largest mobile phone company, boasting tens of millions of cellphone subscribers in France, Britain, Belgium, Portugal, Germany, Italy, and Eastern Europe. Its desire to expand into Armenia came as a surprise given the small size of the local market for telecommunication services.

The Armenian government decided last year to further liberalize the sector despite a dramatic increase in mobile phone use in the country that followed the abolition in late 2004 of the ArmenTel national telecom company’s monopoly on the wireless service. The government says the launch of a third network will make the service even more accessible and affordable for Armenians.

http://www.armenialiberty.org/armeniareport/report/en/2008/10/C27847D4-BCE4-467A-937B-2BB5AAE0B9D8.ASP

[Mos]

Re: Armenia's Economic Pulse

Yes I heard about French Tele, I'm going to switch to French Tele from BeeLine when I get a chance. One word about our economy: TOURISM, it's growing and its a very lucrative business

[meline]

Re: Armenia's Economic Pulse

Sounds like good news

Major business to provide increase in tax receipts

YEREVAN, October 8. /ARKA/. A 22.1% increase in tax receipts planned under Armenia’s state budget for 2009 can be provided only through major business, Chairman of Parliament Commission on Financial, Credit and Budget Issues Gagik Minasyan said.

State budget tax receipts are to total 726bln Drams next year – a record-high level as compared with the previous years.

“We do not have an alternative under the circumstances of this increase in tax receipts and the planned GDP growth of 9.2%,” Minasyan told journalists. The “shadow” sector of the economy should be reduced and major business companies pay taxes due, otherwise it will be impossible to reach such an increase in tax receipts as no heavy tax burden can be placed on small business, Minasyan said.

Under the state budget approved by Armenian Government on September 25, budget revenues are to total 905bln Drams next year, on-budget expenditures are planned at 945bln Drams with budget deficit constituting less than 1% of the GDP – 40bln Drams. Tax to GDP relation is to reach 17.4% in the year 2009. ($1=304.05Drams). –0--

http://www.arka.am/eng/economy/2008/10/08/11508.html

[Federate]

Re: Armenia's Economic Pulse

AS TALKS WITH AZERIS/TURKS FALTER, ARMENIA EXPANDS ACCESS TO GEORGIA/IRAN

The budding relationship between Armenia and Turkey, which started with last month’s "football diplomacy" with much fanfare and high expectations , is facing serious difficulties.

While no one expected a quick resolution of the long-standing issues stemming from the Genocide and its persistent denial by Turkey, few anticipated that the nascent rapprochement would falter so quickly.

After a very friendly and hopeful first meeting between the presidents and foreign ministers of Armenia and Turkey, occasioned by the unprecedented soccer match between their national teams on September 6 in Yerevan, it appears that the Artsakh (Karabagh) conflict is the main reason for the sudden rift.

To begin with, it was strange that the presidents of Armenia and Turkey did not hold a follow-up meeting during their attendance of the U.N. General Assembly sessions in New York in late September. When Pres. Gul was asked by Turkish journalists why no meeting was scheduled with the Armenian President, he first said he was not aware that Pres. Sargsyan was coming to New York and then assured them that they would run into each other during one of many diplomatic receptions. Despite such optimistic talk, the two presidents never meet. They may have been waiting for the outcome of discussions between the foreign ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey who met on the last day of their stay in New York.

On September 28, two days after Pres. Sargsyan left New Yor k, he told reporters that there were "no concrete results yet" from the foreign ministers’ meeting and that he had not expected much from their encounter.

On the same day, Pres. Gul confirmed that there had not been any significant movement to merit the lifting of the blockade of Armenia. Taking a tough stand , he told a Turkish group that "no talks on border opening are possible before Armenia’s liberation of Azerbaijani territories," according to the AzeriTaj news agency. Thus, Pres. Gul was reverting to Turkey’s previous preconditions that had been long rejected by the Armenian side. A senior aide to Azerbaijan’s president, in his turn, confirmed this week that several serious issues remain unresolved on the Artsakh issue.

Ankara and Baku assumed that since the Georgian-Russian conflict had temporarily deprived Armenia of the opportunity to import more than 70% of its vital supplies from Georgia’s Black Sea ports, this was the ideal time to force Yerevan into making serious concessions on the Genocide issue and the Artsakh conflict.

Whether it was coincidence or not, several major initiatives announced by Pres. Sargsyan last week had the effect of countering the hard-line taken by Ankara and Baku in their recent negotiations with Armenia, and dispelling the false impression that Yerevan is desperately seeking to reopen the border with Turkey at any cost.

Pres. Sargsyan announced during his last week’s visit to Tbilisi that he had reached an agreement with Pres. Saakashvili to jointly build a modern highway that would considerably shorten the transport time between the Georgian Port of Batumi and Yerevan.

In a nationally televised speech delivered for the first time in the Armenian Parliament -- akin to the State of the Union address by American presidents before the U.S. Congress -- Pres. Sargsyan announced that a new railway would be constructed to link Iran with Armenia, to facilitate and expand trade between the two countries. He also said that Armenia would build a new nuclear power plant to ensure that the country remains energy self-sufficient when its aging plant is shut down. Finally, he stated that a Pan-Armenian Bank and an investment fund would be established in Yerevan to finance these projects. He said that these "large and daring initiatives" would solve Armenia’s important strategic and economic problems.

Along with these major programs, Armenia just formed a new Diaspora Ministry to streamline and strengthen its relations with millions of Armenians living abroad. On September 24, during a major banquet in New York, Pres. Sargsyan gave the 700 Armenian guests an uplifting message of unity, urging them to join forces for the betterment of Armenia and the Diaspora. He also thanked all those assisting in the resolution of the Artsakh conflict, "the condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, and the restoration of historical justice."

These new initiatives are bound to improve Armenia’s bargaining hand and help negotiate with Turkey and Azerbaijan from a position of strength. The expansion of Armenia’s alternate land routes through Georgia and Iran would considerably diminish the utility of opening the border with Turkey and circumvent more effectively the blockades imposed by Ankara and Baku.

While Armenian officials do want to improve relations with all of their neighbors, they are not so desperate as to make unacceptable concessions on the Genocide and Artsakh issues.

By Harut Sassounian, Publisher, The California Courier

From http://www.azg.am/EN/2008101101