Author: Badalian Vardan

TERRITORIAL ADMINISTRATION AND MIGRATION ISSUES TO BE SOLVED IN ACCORDANCE WITH EU STANDARDS

ARMENPRESS
NOVEMBER 20, 2009
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS: The joint session of the task
groups dealing with the development of the program on migration and
shelter and territorial development concept took place today chaired
by the Secretary of the National Security Council Arthur Baghdasaryan.

Spokeswoman of the Secretary of the National Security Council
Gayane Gasparyan told Armenpress that in 2010 it was decided to finish
the development of the program on migration and shelter and start its
implementation.

Highlighting the importance of developing the program in accordance
with EU standards, A. Baghdasaryan said that it will give an
opportunity to strengthen the mechanisms of move of the people by
Armenia’s state border, undertake practical steps in the protection of
rights of Armenian citizens living in EU countries. The development of
the program will be the basis for formation of the facilitated visa
regime with EU member states.

The officials of the migration agency will be trained in EU member
states, EU experts will support in the improvement of the skills of
the officials of the bodies implementing migration functions.

The regional development concept supposes modernization of
territorial administration system, development of cooperation between
the territorial administration bodies of Armenia and EU member states.

Arthur Baghdasaryan said it will give an opportunity to bring the
Armenia-EU cooperation to a qualitatively to level.

DASHNAKTSUTYUN ACCUSED RA GOVERNMENT OF CONTRIBUTING TO OLIGOPOLY

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
19.11.2009 19:15 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ RA Government and the oligopoly in Armenia’s economy
are a uniform system, so there’s no need to create an artificial
impression that the executive conducts active policy against
oligopoly," ARFD faction member Ara Nranyan told today a Parliament
session devoted to 2010 State Budget.

At that he noted that Armenian Government has, over the course of
years, assisted only in boosting import which caused serious harm
to local producers. "Such policy contributed to the development of
oligopoly and monopoly which exist to date," MP stressed.

According to him, Government’s economic policy has given rise to
serious problems in Armenia’s social justice system, and social
problems prevent people from being concerned by serious national
issues like Armenian-Turkish process.

DEVASTATED GIVENS LAMENTS ARMENIAN ‘HORROR SHOW’

Irish Independent
November 18, 2009 Wednesday
Ireland

THE Republic of Ireland’s nightmare showing in the UEFA U-21
Championships qualifying series plunged to a new low after being
destroyed by Armenia in Yerevan yesterday.

Manager Don Givens has often come under criticism for his record
with this side but even he struggled to think of a worse result in
his 10-year reign than this loss.

"It was by far the worst performance I can remember given the ranking
of the opposition. It’s as poor as I’ve been involved with.

"I’ll look at the DVD and see where it went wrong but it would do
the players good to look at it too because it was a horror show for a
lot of them. It’s a team game but they have to look at themselves now."

The Irish boss was devastated after a heavy defeat by a side that had
previously not won a game. It leaves Ireland bottom of Group Two with
no wins in six games.

Metalurg Donetsk striker Henrikh Mkhitaryan was the home hero,
bagging a hat-trick, as Armenia ran riot against a depleted Irish side.

"Disappointing doesn’t put into words how I feel about that
performance. It was unbelievably poor," said the Irish boss afterwards.

"We knew going into the game we were down seven of the original squad
but I felt sure we had players who could step in and perform better
than that."

Cillian Sheridan headed wide from a decent Irish chance in the 23rd
minute before Mkhitaryan opened the scoring seven minutes later after
evading a number of Irish defenders before slotting home.

Mkhitaryan made it 2-0 in the 61st minute after a neat one-two.

Four minutes later Sheridan gave the Irish hope when he nodded home.

BATE Borisov striker Goharyan extended the home lead 10 minutes later
with a superb strike.

Mkhitaryan made it 4-1 from the penalty spot after Malakyan was taken
down by Oyebanjo in the 81st minute.

ARMENIA — Hovhannisyan; Yedigaryan (Khachatryan 73), Arakelyan,
Yuspashyan, Hayrapetyan, Manoyan, Voskanyan ( Ghazaryan 76), Lazarian,
Malakyan, Goharyan (Badalyan 90), Mkhitaryan.

IRELAND — Redmond; Oyebanjo, Morris, Dennehy, Hughton, Gleeson,
Conneely, Carey (Clifford 46), O’Shea, Collins (Madden 66), Sheridan.

ARMENIAN PM LEAVES FOR YALTA ON NOVEMBER 20

Tert
Nov 19 2009
Armenia

On November 20, RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan leaves for the
Ukrainian city of Yalta to participate in the Heads of State of the
Commonwealth of Independent States Council’s next session.

As announced by the RA government, the delegation headed by the prime
minister is comprised of Head of RA Government Staff Davit Sargsyan,
RA Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan, Extraordinary
and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to Republic
of Belarus Oleg Esayan, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador
of the Republic of Armenia to Ukraine Armen Khachatryan and other
officials.

TIGRAN SARGSYAN SAYS ARMENIAN CITIZENS ARE FIRST OF ALL CONCERNED WITH SOCIAL INJUSTICE ISSUE

ARMENPRESS
Nov 18, 2009

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 18, ARMENPRESS: "Our studies and social polls
show that our citizens first of all our are concerned not with the
pensions and salaries, not with the unemployment and creation of new
jobs, not with the increase of prices and not with the Karabakh or
Genocide issues but with the issue of social injustice," Armenian
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said today in his speech in the NA at
the discussion of the 2010 state draft budget.

According to the prime minister everybody must be equal in front of
the law, despite the official post, incomes and welfare.

"This issue will be under our limelight and in the first turn it
refers to big business. To restores its trust among the public the
big business must work transparently and implement its tax duties
with dignity," Tigran Sargsyan.

He informed that with that aim two important legislative initiatives
will be presented to the parliament: the first will refer to the
publication of the property and income of 500 high-ranked officials
and ensuring the transparency of business. On this way the applying
of the obligatory audit institution is an important event.

IT IS ENVISAGED RECONSTRUCTING TBILISI-YEREVAN RAILWAY

NOYAN TAPAN
NOVEMBER 18, 2009
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The European Union has financed
an important project, whose purpose is to assess the possibility of
reconstructing Tbilisi-Yerevan railway within the framework of TRACECA
(Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia) Program.

The EU Armenia Office reports that the project on reconstruction of
Tbilisi-Yerevan railway aims to prepare a detailed assessment of the
perspective of repairing Tbilisi-Yerevan railway (also an alternative
railway between the indicated cities through the territory of
Azerbaijan), and this assessment should correspond to the international
standards for safe transportation of cargo and passengers.

The results of the possible reconstruction will be Armenia’s connection
to Batumi-Poti-Tbilisi TRACECA railway and a reduction in the passenger
transportation time, which is currently quite long due to speed limits
as a result of the unsatisfactory condition of railway lines. The
reconstruction will considerably improve the competitiveness of
the railway.

The main Tbilisi-Yerevan railway, which was launched in 1899 and
electrified in 1967, has a lot of problems related to its maintenance
and modernization and for that reason it cannot efficiently satisfy
the current and future transport needs. The alternative Yerevan-Tbilisi
railway, which passes through the territory of Azerbaijan, was launched
and electrified in 1964. However, in recent years only Yerevan-Dilijan
section of this railway has been operable.

After 12 months of its operation, the project has conducted three
main studies: examination of the possibility of reconstructing
Tbilisi-Yerevan railway; examination of the possibility of
reconstructing the Hrazdan-Ijevan section of the railway to Azerbaijan
(where traffic is partly blocked due to landslide); and examination of
the possibility of repairing the technical part of the main Georgian
railway.

Within the project, a preliminary assessment of the possibility of
opening a new Vanadzor-Fioletovo section was made, which would allow
reducing the current Tbilisi-Yerevan railway by 100 km.

PURCHASE AND SALE TRANSACTIONS OF 800 THOUSAND DOLLARS CARRIED OUT AT NASDAQ OEMEX ARMENIA OJSC ON NOVEMBER 17

NOYAN TAPAN
NOVEMBER 17, 2009
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, NOYAN TAPAN. Purchase and sale transactions of
800 thousand dollars at the weighted average exchange rate of 387.25
drams per dollar were carried out at Nasdaq Oemex Armenia OJSC on
November 17. According to the press center of the Central Bank of
Armenia, the closing price made 387.25 drams.

RISE IN SALE PRICES OF SEVERAL MEDICINES RECORDED IN OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER

NOYAN TAPAN
NOVEMBER 17, 2009
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, NOYAN TAPAN. A rise in the sale prices of several
medicines has been recorded as a result of the checks conducted by
the RA State Commission for the Protection of Economic Competition in
October-November of this year. According to the preliminary study of
the Commission’s experts, the behavior of the big economic entities
engaged in the import and sale on the markets of cardiovascular,
anti-virus and diabetic medicines may bear evidence of possible
violations of the legislation on competition. For that reason, at
the November 17 sitting, the Commission initiated legal proceedings
in the indicated markets.

During the proceedings, the compliance of the behavior of the
following entities with competition rules will be examined. These
economic entities are: Esculap LLC, Argo Pharm LLC, Asteria LLC,
Alpha Pharm CJSC, Natali Pharm LLC, Vaga Pharm LLC, Arpimed CJSC,
Arpharmatsia CJSC, Amikus LLC, Lagi LLC, Deghabaza Yerevan LLC,
Rus Pharm LLC, Richter Lambron LLC, Tonus Les LLC, Pharm Gohar LLC,
Asteria LLC, Pharm Trust LLC, and Orient Pharm LLC (these economic
entities are the biggest ones in the market). At the Commission’s
sitting, the economic entities were asked to provide information about
the components of the structure of the purchase prices of goods and
their sale prices, also the reasons for a change in prices. They were
also asked to present copies of the agreements and invoices.

The list of the medicines of social importance, whose prices have been
raised in an unfounded way (in the preliminary opinion of experts)
will be available on website.

ARMENIAN CHURCH TO BE BUILT ON JORDAN RIVERSIDE

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
16.11.2009 16:32 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ An Armenian Church will be built on Jordan
riverside. Archbishop Torkom Manoogian, the Armenian Patriarch of
Jerusalem, laid the cornerstone for new church, which will be named
St. Karapet Church.

ARMENIA MAY RECEIVE REMAINING IMF LOANS IN 2010 AND 2011

ARKA
Nov 12, 2009

YEREVAN, November 12, /ARKA/. IMF Resident Representative to Armenia,
Nienke Oomes, said today Armenia will get the remaining part of IMF
loans in 2010 and in the first half of 2011, given that it fulfils
all the assumed obligations.

In June, 2009 tThe Executive Board of the International Monetary
Fund completed the first review of Armenia’s economic performance
under a Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) and approved an increase in the
IMF’s financial support to an amount equivalent to SDR 533.6 million
(about US$822.7 million; or 580 percent of Armenia’s quota.

Speaking at a news conference today Nienke Oomes said among other
things, the government should improve its taxation legislation and
impose, particularly, a customary taxation regime for tobacco products
and petrol.

She said also Armenia’s next year budget deficit will make 5.8% of
the GDP (7.5% in 2009). At that, she said, the government will have
to gradually reduce the deficit level in the next years, because it
will have to repay its debts.

Regarding Armenia’s foreign debt, she said it gets critical when
the debt to GDP ratio exceeds 50 percent. Before the crisis this
ratio was 15%, now it has risen to 30%. She said the government has
accepted IMF’s conditions for implementation of actions which will
secure economic progress.