From military industry to passport. Polish companies are leaving Armenia

Polish companies working in various fields are leaving Armenia. Reasons vary: debt pile up, unprofitability, contract cancellation or deal renewal issues. VERELQtried to find out the details of the problem.

“Lyubava-Armenia” – accumulation of debts

Former Ambassador of Poland to Armenia by Jerzy Marek Nowakowski according to information, the first joint Armenian-Polish military-industrial enterprise “Lyubava-Armenia”, operating in Armenia since 2014, is not ruled out to leave Armenia. The ambassador said this during a meeting with Armenian journalists at the Center for Eastern European Studies in Poland, “Aravot.am” writes.

The former ambassador noted that he learned about it in a private conversation and does not open many brackets.

Launched in October 2014, the company is engaged in the production of modern multifunctional camouflage technologies, producing products of military and technical significance: false targets, technical and other tents, helmets, body armor, camouflage nets, etc.

In 2017, it became known that the enterprise produces $1.7 million worth of equipment/equipment for the RA Armed Forces.

The Ministry of Defense of Armenia confirms that at the moment the Armenian-Polish enterprise “Lyubava-Armenia” continues to operate. “At the moment, the enterprise is working” – VERELQSpokesperson of the Minister of Defense said in a conversation with Artsrun Hovhannisyannoting that he cannot reveal other details about the relations and transactions between the company and the Ministry of Defense.

At the same time, our sources in the RA Armed Forces do not rule out that the “Lyubava-Armenia” company may leave Armenia. “The company’s products are quite expensive in terms of price-performance comparison, and the Armenian side is not so inclined in this regard to purchase the latter’s military equipment,” said our source.

The Armenian-Polish company has a trilingual website www.lubawa.am, whose “news” section has not been updated for more than 1.5 years. The latest news was posted on October 17, 2017, which mentions the then Minister of Defense Vigen Sargsyan about the meeting that took place about a month ago (September 27).

It is interesting that we could not find “Lyubava-Armenia” CJSC mentioned on the official website on the state registry website. Then it turned out that the company registered under 02810067 AVC code has a different name: “CHTG GROUP” CJSC. It was not possible to find out whether the company was initially registered under this name or whether it changed its name in the process. The phone numbers posted on the company’s website did not answer either. Maybe because of a holiday, not a working day.

According to the official website of the company, the enterprise is located in the city of Charentsavan, at Yesayan 2/1. In the SRC Taxpayer Search System, the status of the company is indicated as “active”. However, according to SRC data, the company has been operating at a loss for years. According to the data of 2016, it is 109th in the list of companies that declared a loss, with a negative index of 265 million drams. This is the data we were able to find from open sources.

Judging by the information provided by our source of the Ministry of Defense and the ambassador’s statement, it is no coincidence that the company wants to leave Armenia. It has been operating at a loss for years, the products of which the Armenian side does not consider it appropriate to purchase. One can only assume why the company, which suffered losses of hundreds of millions of drams in the last few years, now announces its departure from Armenia.

The question arises whether it is related to the revision of the rules of the game and the significant limitation of corruption schemes in Armenia after the change of power, especially in the Ministry of Defense.

Tank modernization was entrusted to Russia

In general, the military-industrial cooperation between Armenia and Poland intensified after 2011, and in May 2013 there were reports in the media that Armenia was preparing to upgrade its T-72 tanks to the PT-72U level offered by the Polish company Bumar Łabędy.

Then “Lyubava-Armenia” CJSC appeared on the Armenian market. And before that, according to the report published by the Russian “World Arms Trade Analysis Center”, 84 T-72 Armenian tanks will be upgraded to the PT-72U level. The Polish side, which has a rich experience in the production of tanks, signed a corresponding contract with Armenia for the modernization of tanks in 2012, RazmInfo reminds.

According to the contract, 24 out of 84 tanks will be modernized during 2013, and 30 tanks each will be modernized in 2014 and 2015. The total value of the contract was 100 million US dollars. According to various estimates, the Armenian army has around 530-540 T-72 units in total.

The interest of the Armenian side in Polish modernization began in 2011, when the Minister of Defense of Armenia Seyran Ohanyan During the “MSPO-2011” military-industrial exhibition, he visited the booth of the Polish company “Bumar Łabędy”, where he was presented with the PT-72U tank.

However, the Armenian-Polish cooperation did not reach its logical end. In 2016, it became known that Armenia and Russia started a large-scale modernization program of the T-72 main battle tanks of the RA Armed Forces. Tanks should be upgraded to T-72B4 level.

At that time, referring to the issue of the modernization of the tanks of the Armenian Armed Forces, Ambassador Jerzy Marek Nowakowski emphasized that the decision of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia to entrust the modernization of tanks belonging to Armenia to Russia “was accepted by the Polish side with pain, but with understanding.”

Ambassador Jerzy Marek Nowakowski also mentioned in a conversation with journalists that Polish businessmen are closely following the success of the joint military-industrial enterprise “Lyubava-Armenia”. According to him, it can be a “litmus test” for Polish investments in Armenia

“Our businessmen are closely following the success of the Lyubava-Armenia partnership. Is it a profitable, profitable investment? It can be said that for them “Lyubava” is an example, an experience of how to operate successfully in the Armenian market,” said the ambassador, who now, three years later, is already retired and announces the possibility of the company leaving Armenia.

They do not produce biometric passports either

Another problematic example of a Polish company operating in Armenia is PWPW S.A., which prints biometric passports and identification cards. company transactions. During the processing of those transactions, serious problems arose when in 2016 the Polish side stopped printing biometric passports and identification cards by order of the Armenian police.

In 2011, a contract was signed between the parties, by which the company was obliged to supply 304 thousand biometric passports to the RA police. The contract had expired. An interim solution was found, but in 2017 On January 1, the contract signed by the state with the Polish company PVPV finally expired.

Already at the end of 2019, it became known that a new contract was not signed with the new supplier. “The purchase procedure, as well as the introduction and operation of the new system, will require a long period of time, in our estimation, up to 2 years”, – the RA deputy police chief announced in the National Assembly. Hovhannes Kocharyan.

That was the reason why the National Assembly adopted the draft law presented by the Government, which proposed to extend the period of validity of old passports of RA citizens by 2 years.

In the end, we can only add that, judging by the data collected from open sources, Polish companies leave the Armenian market one by one for various reasons. Currently, among the major Polish companies, the company “Lot Polish Airlines” continues to operate in the Armenian market.

Arshaluys Mghdesyan