Armenia's Economic Pulse

[Artashes]

Re: Armenia's Economic Pulse

There are traitors everywhere....why are we like this, Country cannot effort this.

Very inflated ego, easiest to be manipulated in the hands of a skilful manipulator.
He definitely has a bad dress sense also.

Looking beyond the social vulgarity of the project, architecturally the domes of the “hut” look very Mongol style.


Strap your seats he may be “our” next president !!


.

Difinitly can't afford traitors. That's the difference between all the people participating & achieving high productivity and moving forward with ligitimate hope. But instead only a "few" have hopeful expectations.
A real crime & shame.
-----
Thought the same thing when I saw those dumb domes. The guy has about as much taste as he does class = 0

[Mher]

Re: Armenia's Economic Pulse

Very inflated ego, easiest to be manipulated in the hands of a skilful manipulator.
He definitely has a bad dress sense also.

Looking beyond the social vulgarity of the project, architecturally the domes of the “hut” look very Mongol style.


Strap your seats he may be “our” next president !!


.

first president in history to have been formally convicted of rape?
well, it'll follow a clear pattern considering the prime minister is possibly the only one in europe with no college degree

[Artashes]

Re: Armenia's Economic Pulse

first president in history to have been formally convicted of rape?
well, it'll follow a clear pattern considering the prime minister is possibly the only one in europe with no college degree

---- formally ---- convicted.
The American presidents such as Washington & Jefferson were by today's standards raping their slaves.
If a rose is a rose, rape is rape.

[Mher]

Re: Armenia's Economic Pulse

Russia will provide Armenia with $270 million loan for major repair of nuclear power plant


YEREVAN, November 19. / ARKA /. Russia will provide Armenia with a loan of $270 million for a major repair of the second unit of the Armenian nuclear power plant in Metsamor, finance minister Gagik Khachatryan said on Wednesday to a Cabinet meeting prior to government’s approval of an agreement with Russia whereby the latter will provide Armenia with a government loan for financing the extension of the service life of the facility.

According to the minister, the loan will be used for repair and re-equipment of the second unit of the Armenian NPP from 2014 to 2018.

The loan is granted for a period of 10 years at a rate of 3% per annum with the first payment scheduled for January 15, 2019.

In addition, the Armenian government approved an agreement between the governments of Armenia and Russia on cooperation in extending the service life of the second unit of the Armenian NPP.

In this regard, energy and natural resources minister Yervand Zakarian said the authorized representative of the Armenian party is the Metsamor facility; the Russian side will be represented by Rusatom Service contractor

Earlier Russia had said it would provide a $270 million loan to Armenia for the repair of the second unit of the Armenian NPP and a $30 million grant.

The Metsamor plant located some 30 kilometers west of Yerevan, was built in the 1970s but was closed following a devastating earthquake in 1988 that killed some 25,000 people and devastated much of northern Armenia.

One of the plant’s two VVER 440-V230 light-water reactors was reactivated in 1995. The government wants to build a new facility that is supposed to operate at twice the capacity of the Soviet-constructed facility. Metsamor currently generates some 40 percent of Armenia's electricity. But the government has yet to attract funding for the project that was estimated as much as $5 billion.-0-

http://arka.am/en/news/technology/russia_will_provide_armenia_with_270_million_loan_for_major_repair_of_nuclear_power_plant/

[Mher]

Re: Armenia's Economic Pulse

Doing Business 2015: Armenia up in WB index

Armenia has moved four positions up in the latest Doing Business index released by the World Bank.

On the list of 189 nations Armenia occupies 45th place as opposed to its 49th “Ease of Doing Business” rank in the previous edition of the report.

Decline was observed only in three areas: getting loans, protecting minority investors and resolving insolvency.

Singapore is the leading country for the ninth year in row, followed by New Zealand and Hong Kong.

Armenia’s northern neighbor Georgia is placed 15 and is the leader among post-Soviet countries. Turkey and Azerbaijan are ranked 80th and 55th, respectively. Iran is ranked 130th.

Of Armenia’s future partners in the Eurasian Economic Union Russia is ranked 62nd, Belarus is 57th and Kazakhstan is 77th.

Eritrea is assessed as the “least easy” country for doing business, according to the report that covers ten areas, including starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity and registering property.

http://www.armenianow.com/economy/58048/armenia_doing_business_report_2015

[Mher]

Re: Armenia's Economic Pulse

Russia: Sochi Bets on Becoming the Black Sea Monte Carlo
November 21, 2014 - 7:47am, by Paul Rimple


A decade ago, it was just another down-at-heels vacation destination. But the Black Sea resort town of Sochi has been transformed by hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics. And now, it aims to become a Russian version of Monte Carlo.

After Russia cracked down on gambling in 2009, the Kremlin restricted casinos to four far-flung gaming zones – Yantarnaya in Kaliningrad, Altai in central Siberia, Primorye in the Far East, and Azov City in Krasnodar. The Russian restrictions created an opportunity for the South Caucasus nation of Georgia to establish itself as a gambling hub, since gaming is prohibited in Azerbaijan and Turkey and restricted to a small zone in Armenia.

But now, just as a gaming industry is starting to make solid contributions to Georgia’s struggling economy, it faces a challenge from its outsized neighbor to the north, Russia.

Russia’s plan to bring gambling to Sochi came as a surprise addition to its move this summer to allow casinos in Crimea. The peninsula, forcibly annexed by Russia in early 2014, has experienced an economic crash, and Russian officials hope casinos can create jobs and generate revenue there. Sochi is also in need of new revenue streams to pay the bills for its Olympic make-over. State-owned Sberbank, which has a 92 percent stake in one of Sochi’s proposed gambling zones, Krasnaya Polyana, had been lobbying for a gaming license to help it recoup tens of billions of rubles it invested in the city for the winter games.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had originally opposed gambling in Sochi, signed the measure into law in July.

The move is the largest threat Georgia’s gaming industry has faced since 2013, when the Georgian parliament introduced a bill to ban gambling. The Georgian Orthodox Church, the country’s most influential institution, has opposed the spread of casinos.

Yet Georgian lawmakers understood the significant contribution casinos make to the state budget. In 2013, Georgia generated nearly 105.26 million lari (approximately $60 million), or roughly 2 percent of its state budget, from gambling taxes, according to the Revenue Service.

For the past nine years, the focal point of that sector has been the Black Sea port of Batumi, about 370 kilometers to the south of Sochi. Whereas Tbilisi casinos pay an annual license fee of 5 million lari, or $2.84 million, one of the highest rates in the world, Batumi casinos only have to ante up 250,000 laris ($141,000) annually. Anyone who builds a 100-room hotel with a casino is offered a 10-year freeze on annual license fees.

Today, Batumi has five casinos, with two more slated to open next year.

Mehmet Esen, finance director of Batumi’s Peace Casino, at the Sheraton Hotel, is not concerned about Russian competition. Russians make up a small percentage of Georgia’s gamblers, he noted. Most come from Turkey and Azerbaijan; and there is also a growing number from Iran. “Russian high-rollers go to Macau or Monte Carlo,” Esen said.

If Russia were to become serious competition for Batumi, he suggested, it would have to implement a sound gaming law and somehow change its negative gaming reputation. Gambling is largely unregulated in Russia and has a reputation of being connected to organized crime.

At a two-day November gambling industry conference in Sochi, Mustafa Yilmaz, a director at Princess Casinos International, which operates casinos around the world, told EurasiaNet.org he sees potential for Sochi to attract some of Georgia’s Azerbaijani and Turkish clients. Turkey currently enjoys a 30-day visa-free regime with Russia, while Azerbaijanis can stay in the country for 90 days visa-free.

In addition, whereas Batumi’s tourist season lasts only a few months in summer, Sochi attracts visitors in both summer and winter, Yilmaz pointed out.

But the lack of a clear strategy for Sochi’s gambling sector means Yilmaz and other casino investors currently have more questions than answers. Nobody knows whether the planned gambling zone will be 30 kilometers from the city center (at the Olympic Park Media Center), or 67 kilometers away, up at the Olympic alpine site of Krasnaya Polyana. Conference attendees said they also do not know the tax rates, number of licenses to be issued and how the casinos will be regulated.

“It’s a big if; a big blank. We don’t know anything,” Yilmaz said.

Ultimately, whether or not Georgia’s gaming industry suffers from the appearance of Sochi casinos depends on the scale of investment and services there, said Ian Livingston, managing director at the Casino Adjara in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. “If Sochi were to develop to such a degree as to be a mini-Vegas, then we feel it might draw some of our foreign players from surrounding areas,” he said.

Gambling experts agree this will not happen soon. “You need a few years just to start and it will take them one year just to figure out the legal questions,” said Darren Keane, chief executive officer of Storm International, a major gaming-industry player which operates Tbilisi’s Shangri La Casino, as well as a restaurant-bookmaker facility in Moscow.

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/71051

Interesting article. Wouldn't mind seeing a similar concept around Sevan in Armenia.

[Federate]

Re: Armenia's Economic Pulse

Russia: Sochi Bets on Becoming the Black Sea Monte Carlo
November 21, 2014 - 7:47am, by Paul Rimple


A decade ago, it was just another down-at-heels vacation destination. But the Black Sea resort town of Sochi has been transformed by hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics. And now, it aims to become a Russian version of Monte Carlo.

After Russia cracked down on gambling in 2009, the Kremlin restricted casinos to four far-flung gaming zones – Yantarnaya in Kaliningrad, Altai in central Siberia, Primorye in the Far East, and Azov City in Krasnodar. The Russian restrictions created an opportunity for the South Caucasus nation of Georgia to establish itself as a gambling hub, since gaming is prohibited in Azerbaijan and Turkey and restricted to a small zone in Armenia.

But now, just as a gaming industry is starting to make solid contributions to Georgia’s struggling economy, it faces a challenge from its outsized neighbor to the north, Russia.

Russia’s plan to bring gambling to Sochi came as a surprise addition to its move this summer to allow casinos in Crimea. The peninsula, forcibly annexed by Russia in early 2014, has experienced an economic crash, and Russian officials hope casinos can create jobs and generate revenue there. Sochi is also in need of new revenue streams to pay the bills for its Olympic make-over. State-owned Sberbank, which has a 92 percent stake in one of Sochi’s proposed gambling zones, Krasnaya Polyana, had been lobbying for a gaming license to help it recoup tens of billions of rubles it invested in the city for the winter games.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had originally opposed gambling in Sochi, signed the measure into law in July.

The move is the largest threat Georgia’s gaming industry has faced since 2013, when the Georgian parliament introduced a bill to ban gambling. The Georgian Orthodox Church, the country’s most influential institution, has opposed the spread of casinos.

Yet Georgian lawmakers understood the significant contribution casinos make to the state budget. In 2013, Georgia generated nearly 105.26 million lari (approximately $60 million), or roughly 2 percent of its state budget, from gambling taxes, according to the Revenue Service.

For the past nine years, the focal point of that sector has been the Black Sea port of Batumi, about 370 kilometers to the south of Sochi. Whereas Tbilisi casinos pay an annual license fee of 5 million lari, or $2.84 million, one of the highest rates in the world, Batumi casinos only have to ante up 250,000 laris ($141,000) annually. Anyone who builds a 100-room hotel with a casino is offered a 10-year freeze on annual license fees.

Today, Batumi has five casinos, with two more slated to open next year.

Mehmet Esen, finance director of Batumi’s Peace Casino, at the Sheraton Hotel, is not concerned about Russian competition. Russians make up a small percentage of Georgia’s gamblers, he noted. Most come from Turkey and Azerbaijan; and there is also a growing number from Iran. “Russian high-rollers go to Macau or Monte Carlo,” Esen said.

If Russia were to become serious competition for Batumi, he suggested, it would have to implement a sound gaming law and somehow change its negative gaming reputation. Gambling is largely unregulated in Russia and has a reputation of being connected to organized crime.

At a two-day November gambling industry conference in Sochi, Mustafa Yilmaz, a director at Princess Casinos International, which operates casinos around the world, told EurasiaNet.org he sees potential for Sochi to attract some of Georgia’s Azerbaijani and Turkish clients. Turkey currently enjoys a 30-day visa-free regime with Russia, while Azerbaijanis can stay in the country for 90 days visa-free.

In addition, whereas Batumi’s tourist season lasts only a few months in summer, Sochi attracts visitors in both summer and winter, Yilmaz pointed out.

But the lack of a clear strategy for Sochi’s gambling sector means Yilmaz and other casino investors currently have more questions than answers. Nobody knows whether the planned gambling zone will be 30 kilometers from the city center (at the Olympic Park Media Center), or 67 kilometers away, up at the Olympic alpine site of Krasnaya Polyana. Conference attendees said they also do not know the tax rates, number of licenses to be issued and how the casinos will be regulated.

“It’s a big if; a big blank. We don’t know anything,” Yilmaz said.

Ultimately, whether or not Georgia’s gaming industry suffers from the appearance of Sochi casinos depends on the scale of investment and services there, said Ian Livingston, managing director at the Casino Adjara in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. “If Sochi were to develop to such a degree as to be a mini-Vegas, then we feel it might draw some of our foreign players from surrounding areas,” he said.

Gambling experts agree this will not happen soon. “You need a few years just to start and it will take them one year just to figure out the legal questions,” said Darren Keane, chief executive officer of Storm International, a major gaming-industry player which operates Tbilisi’s Shangri La Casino, as well as a restaurant-bookmaker facility in Moscow.

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/71051

Interesting article. Wouldn't mind seeing a similar concept around Sevan in Armenia.

I have always wanted to see some casinos pop up around the Meghri area near the Iranian border for Iranians who want to drive solely for the purpose of gambling. I think I had read somewhere that they were proposing doing this to attract Iranians who would cross the border for a short drive, gamble away their money & go back to Iran.

[Mher]

Re: Armenia's Economic Pulse

I have always wanted to see some casinos pop up around the Meghri area near the Iranian border for Iranians who want to drive solely for the purpose of gambling. I think I had read somewhere that they were proposing doing this to attract Iranians who would cross the border for a short drive, gamble away their money & go back to Iran.

That is a brilliant idea. I'm not sure why it hasn't been implemented yet
For most Persian, if they are going to drive all the way to Yerevan, they might as well drive to Tbilisi. Alternatively, they can get to Baku much faster than Yerevan.
Moreover, you can't just pop up in Yerevan for a day or for a weekend. The drive is long enough at 8hrs that if you're going its a mini vacation. But the drive from Tabriz (Iran's third most important city) is 2.5 hours to Meghri. It can most definitely revolutionize the economic landscape of the region
It seems so simple to me

------------------------------------
Edit: it's already happening

http://gamingzion.com/gamblingnews/no-iranian-casinos-but-why-not-visit-armenia-4407

http://www.innovategaming.com/iran-border-casinos

http://news.am/eng/news/196432.html

[Mher]

Re: Armenia's Economic Pulse

Armenia's National Debt & Foreign Debt

I wanted to provide a picture on Armenia's national debt, and total foreign debt, which I have been following for a while
Up until the economic recession, the Armenian national debt was in a stellar situation. It stood at merely 13.5% of GDP. However following the recession, it looked as it was it critical condition for a while as Armenia was on a path to possible bankruptcy. The government had to borrow massively from anti-crisis funds from monetary organizations to stop the total collapse of the country. The debt was projected to grow to 42% by the end of 2010, and 50% by 2012.

http://www.rferl.org/content/armenia_debt_predicts_for_future/2263405.html

However in the past two years the government has managed to take hold of the situation and has started chipping away at the debt. It is now in a very solid situation. Most of the debt is the remaining of the anti-crisis fund and the new loans for the North-South highway. Armenia has passed the peak of the payment crunch and it should be easier from here on out-given the Russian situation stabilizes.

http://arka.am/en/news/economy/armenia_s_foreign_debt_not_a_concern_for_government_economy_minister_/

http://arka.am/en/news/economy/armenia_s_national_debt_below_risk_level_wb/

http://arka.am/en/news/economy/armenia_s_external_public_debt_drops_by_4_5_percent_in_third_quarter_to_3_723_5_billion/

Armenian Foreign Debt: $3.73 billion; 35.6% of GDP
Armenian Total Public Debt: $4.46 billion; 42.8% GDP

[Chubs]

Re: Armenia's Economic Pulse

Armenia's National Debt & Foreign Debt

I wanted to provide a picture on Armenia's national debt, and total foreign debt, which I have been following for a while
Up until the economic recession, the Armenian national debt was in a stellar situation. It stood at merely 13.5% of GDP. However following the recession, it looked as it was it critical condition for a while as Armenia was on a path to possible bankruptcy. The government had to borrow massively from anti-crisis funds from monetary organizations to stop the total collapse of the country. The debt was projected to grow to 42% by the end of 2010, and 50% by 2012.

http://www.rferl.org/content/armenia_debt_predicts_for_future/2263405.html

However in the past two years the government has managed to take hold of the situation and has started chipping away at the debt. It is now in a very solid situation. Most of the debt is the remaining of the anti-crisis fund and the new loans for the North-South highway. Armenia has passed the peak of the payment crunch and it should be easier from here on out-given the Russian situation stabilizes.

http://arka.am/en/news/economy/armenia_s_foreign_debt_not_a_concern_for_government_economy_minister_/

http://arka.am/en/news/economy/armenia_s_national_debt_below_risk_level_wb/

http://arka.am/en/news/economy/armenia_s_external_public_debt_drops_by_4_5_percent_in_third_quarter_to_3_723_5_billion/

Armenian Foreign Debt: $3.73 billion; 35.6% of GDP
Armenian Total Public Debt: $4.46 billion; 42.8% GDP

Mher, when do you think the Russian situation will stabilize? I know this is just a shot in the dark, but do you think its gonna hit Armenia hard and hinder economic growth? Bring in a recession?

Would you also agree that this is the result of dependence on Russia, and issues in the world economy? If something does happen, say something worrying, do you think Armenia might be able to learn from this experience, and allocate resources to lessen its economic dependency on remittances

Here are the levels:

-Nothing-

-Fluctuation-

-Economic hiccup-

-Moderate decline in economy-

-Recession-

-Crisis-

-Bankruptcy-

-Devastation-