More money was sent to “Meridian Holding” CJSC for COP 17. 500 this time

The 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity will be held in Yerevan at the “Meridian” exhibition and event center. 168․amis different with publications refer to is at the event.

In particular, we informed that last year the State Property Committee of the Ministry of Territorial Management and Infrastructure signed a space lease agreement with “Meridian Holding” CJSC for the COP 17 conference. The price of the contract was 5 billion 775 million drams. In the contractual specification about the nature and period of space provision, it is also stated that in addition to the COP 17 service, the holding will also provide space provision services within 6 years after that, within the framework of the price of the mentioned contract, equivalent to 2 billion 775 million AMD (the cost of 1 square meter for 1 day is 462.5 AMD and without the minimum square meter requirement).

In the session of September 11, 2025, the Executive Board approved the draft Government decision, according to which the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 17) will be held in the “Meridian” expo center in 2026. It was mentioned that the allocated sum of 5 billion 775 million drams will be spent on the repair, construction and improvement works of areas in the “Meridian” expo center, making the entire area suitable for organizing the above-mentioned event in the “Meridian” expo center at a high level. The 17th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 17) is scheduled to be held in Armenia on October 18-30, 2026.

Recently, we learned that the Ministry of Finance provided the same Meridian center with a 500,000 USD loan at 1 percent. The purpose of the loan was assumed to be the same “costly” measure, but for clarification, we sent a written request to the Ministry, inquiring about the purpose of the loan, terms, terms of interest calculation, as well as clarifying whether this is the only similar loan to the “Meridian” center.

In response, Secretary General of the Ministry Hayk Harutyunyan elaborated. On the basis of the Law of the Republic of Armenia “On the State Budget of the Republic of Armenia for 2026” of the Government of the Republic of Armenia of May 27, 2026, Resolution No. 1910-N of the Government of the Republic of Armenia of December 25, 2025 and on Making Budget Loans from the State Budget of the Republic of Armenia No. 762-N of 02.06.2026 Credit agreement No. 1/2026 was signed between the RA Ministry of Finance and “Meridian Holding” CJSC.

According to the contract, for the construction of the “Meridian” expo center, the company was granted a budget loan from the state budget in the amount of AMD 1,839,350,000 with an annual interest rate of 1 percent and a repayment period of 78 months. You can find other information about this decision аrlis.am on the website.

At the same time, we inform that “Meridian Holding” PB company was not granted any other loans from the RA state budget.

The link mentioned by the Secretary General of the Ministry also details that the loan is given to Meridian Holding closed joint stock company for the purpose of building the Meridian Expo Center for the organization of the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17) on October 18-30, 2026 in the Republic of Armenia.

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