Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

BY LATE 2007 ARMENIA’S STATE DEBT TO MAKE ABOUT 1.56 BILLION DOLLARS OR 19.1% OF GDP

Noyan Tapan
Nov 01 2006

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 1, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA government presented the 2007
draft state budget at the joint sitting of the RA National Assembly
standing committees on November 1. The revenues of the state budget
make 489.5 bln drams, expenditures – 557.8 bln drams, deficit –
68.3 bln drams (about 179.7 mln USD).

Speaking about the main orientation and ideology of the budget, RA
Minister of Finance and Economy Vardan Khachatrian noted that the
levels of the draft budget’s revenues, expenditures, deficit and debt
have been formed in the context of the government’s common long-term
and medium-term tax and budgetary goals. The minister presented the
macroeconomic indices that formed the basis for calculation of the
indices of the draft budget. Thus, real GDP growth is programmed at 9%,
GDP deflator – 4%, average annual inflation – 4% plus-minus 1.5%, the
settlements rate of 1 US dollar – 357 drams. The growth of commodity
import is programmed at 13.5%, export growth – at 16%. As a result,
the import and export of goods make 2.151 billion USD and 1.248 billion
USD respectively. The ratios of imports/GDP and exports/GDP make 31.7%
and 20.1% respectively. The ratio of overall state budget revenues/GDP
is programmed at 16.8%, the ratio of tax revenues and duties of state
budget/GDP – 15.7%, the ratio of state budget expenditures/GDP –
19.1%, and the ratio of state budget deficit/GDP – 2.3%. Accoording to
V. Khachatrian, external sources will prevail among finance sources of
the 2007 state budget’s deficit: they will account for nearly 60.5%
of the total. Domestic sources of financing the budget deficit will
include revenues of 8.5 bln drams from the sale of state securities,
as well as privatization and currency resources of a total of 19.1
bln drams. By late 2007, state debt is forecast to make about 1.56
bln USD or 19.1% of GDP. Foreign debt accounts for most of the state
debt – 87.7% or 1.36 bln USD.

"The programmed growth in foreign debt will not have a significant
impact on the country’s solvency, because a number of qualitative
indices either will not change or will change positively," the minister
said. In his words, by several indices Armenia is among the states
with a small debt burden, while by the ratio of foreign debt/exports,
it is among the countries with a middle-size debt burden.
From: Baghdasarian

149 BREAKS OF ABOUT 6 MLN DRAMS FIXED AT SOCIAL SERVICE TERRITORIAL AGENCIES OF ARMENIA IN 2006

Noyan Tapan
Nov 01 2006

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 1, NOYAN TAPAN. 149 files involving breaches
were found out as a result of controls implemented this year at
14 territorial agencies of the Social Service of Armenia. Vahan
Baghdasarian, the Chief of the Control and Social Monitoring Department
of the RA Ministry of Labour and Social Issues stated about it at
the November 1 press conference. He mentioned that the majority of
fixed breaches, 83 ones, are provided by false references presented
by local self-government bodies, in the consequence of what the size
of damage to the state budget made 721 thousand drams. V.Baghdasarian
mentioned that 26 breaches of non-addressed appointment and payment of
family benefit and one-off financial aid of 2 mln 919 thousand drams
(about 6.7 thousand U.S. dollars) were also fixed. In V.Baghdasarian’s
words, as of September 1, the money subject to exacting back made 5
mln 889 thousand 500 drams. V.Baghdasarian mentioned that as a result
of controls held at 10 territorial centers of the RA Social Insurance
State Fund, breaches were found in documents of 81 pensioners. In his
words, about 2.3 mln drams more and about 200 thousand drams incomplete
payments were fixed. V.Baghdasarian mentioned as an example that as
a result of the control of assurance of necessary documents being
a basis for appointing and recalculating the pension at the Talin
territorial center on social insurance, false references were found
out in files of 6 pensioners which were given by the Talin territorial
representation of the RA National Archives.
From: Baghdasarian

"CUP OF ZEYTUN" INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT DEDICATED TO 15th ANNIVERSARY OF INDEPENDENCE OF ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
Oct 31 2006

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 31, NOYAN TAPAN. The "Cup of Zeytun" 10th traditional
international tournament of judo wrestling which was dedicated to
the 15th anniversary of the RA independence was held in Yerevan on
October 27-29.

Representatives of Armenia Karen Isahakian (56 kg, Vanadzor),
Artur Srapian (60 kg, Gyumri), Aram Ghazarian (73 kg, Armavir),
Armen Ispirian (81 kg, Yerevan), Maria Martinova (48 kg, Yerevan)
and Karine Ghevondian (57 kg, Yerevan) won in the youth struggle. Judo
wrestlers of Armenia were the first in 6 of the 9 weight categories of
the juvenile competitions. In total 305 sportsmen, including ones from
Georgia as well, participated in the tournament. As Davit Khitarian,
the Chairman of the organization committee of the tournament, the
coach mentioned in the interview to the Noyan Tapan correspondent,
participation of representatives of the Georgian judo rich in
traditions of this kind of sport greatly assists growth of mastery
of judo representatives of Armenia.
From: Baghdasarian

ELMAR MAMMADYAROV: INCLUSION OF THE "FROZEN CONFLICTS" ISSUE IN UN AGENDA VERY IMPORTANT

ArmRadio.am
31.10.2006 14:48

Inclusion of the issue of "frozen conflicts" in UN General
Assembly agenda is very important, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister
Elmar Mammadyarov told the journalists, "Trend" agency reports. He
noted the "the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is considered "frozen" and
will be discuused November 4 at the UN General Assembly siting." "By
September 2007 the decision of the General Assembly will be known,"
the Minister said.

Mammadyarov informed also that the question will be discussed with
the Foreign Minister of Georgia, who arrived in Azerbaijan today.
From: Baghdasarian

29% PEOPLE REMAIN HUNGRY

A1+
[05:44 pm] 31 October, 2006

Armenia is included in the list of CIS countries where there are a
lot of people feeding abnormally.

According to the report of the FAO (Food and Agricultural
Organization), 29percent of the Armenian population don’t eat well
and sufficiently.

Alongside with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, Armenia appeared in the
last place in the CIS countries’ list with its index.

In this respect, Belorussia, Ukraine and Russia are in better state.

As for Armenia’s neighbors, Georgia and Azerbaijan have serious
progress in this sphere among the former Soviet countries according
to the UNO.

The report says that the total number of the people who were on the
verge of hunger reached 2.5 million in Georgia and Azerbaijan in 1993 –
1995 whereas this number was curtailed to 700 thousand in 2001 – 2003.

The FAO sees progress in Armenia as well. If 52 percent of the
population didn’t feed properly in 90s, today, their number reduced to
29 percent though the FAO specialists claim that the above-mentioned
index is again high and troublesome.

According to the UNO specialists, the insufficient nourishment is
determined by wars, natural disasters and the extreme poverty caused
by these factors.
From: Baghdasarian

ITB’s ASSETS MAKE 5.1 BILLION DRAMS AT END OF FIRST HALF OF 2006

Noyan Tapan
Oct 30 2006

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 30, NOYAN TAPAN. As of June 30, 2006, the assets
of the International Trade Bank (ITB) made 5.1 bln drams (about 11.5
mln USD), its credit portfolio – 1.6 bln drams, and overall capital
– 2.98 bln drams. NT was informed from the bank that ITB has four
branches in Armenia. To recap, ITB was founded in 1992 on the basis
of Menatep-Yerevan Bank CJSC – the Yerevan branch of Menatep Bank
(Russia). In April 2000, several foreign companies acquired ITB’s
shares and later united in Makarious (MG) Holdings GMBH, and the bank
was renamed "International Trade Bank" (ITB). Since 2005, Makarious
(MG) Holdings GMBH has owned 99.91% of the bank’s shares. Makarious
unites about 60 companies registered in Austria, Great Britain,
Ireland, Switzerland, Cyprus and several CIS countries. The group
is composed of banks, leasing, investment and consulting companies
that implement big investment programs in construction, mining,
wood working, textile industry, precise technologies and trade.

In Armenia, the economic interests of Makarious Group are not limited
to the banking sector: the group has invested 22.5 million dollars
in construction of North Avenue in Yerevan.
From: Baghdasarian

PUTIN, KOCHARYAN TO DISCUSS NATGAS COOPERATION, SECURITY ISSUES

ITAR-TASS, Russia
Oct 30 2006

MOSCOW, October 30 (Itar-Tass) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on
Monday will for the fourth time this year meet his Armenian counterpart
Robert Kocharyan. A high-ranking Kremlin administration official told
Itar-Tass that the sides will focus on cooperation in the natural
gas supply sphere and improvement of the situation in the Caucasus.

Kocharyan is arriving in the Russian capital on a two-day working
visit on Monday.

The two presidents’ meeting "will be continuation of the active
political dialogue between Russia and Armenia that matches the
strategic character of Russo-Armenian partnership," the Kremlin
administration representative believes.

According to the source, "the agenda of the meeting will centre on
issues of bilateral relations, new opportunities of economic ties,
and cooperation in the fields of energy, transport, investments, and
real economy where Russian interests are considerably represented
in the financial sphere and key branches." He also stressed that
"there will be a detailed discussion of prospects of cooperation in
the natural gas sector."

The Kremlin official said that "the discussion of interaction in the
trade and economy sphere will be one of the central subjects of the
meeting." The official noted in this connection "a positive tendency in
this sphere" – in the first eight months of 2006 trade between Russia
and Armenia reached 278 million US dollars, a 60-percent increase
from the same period last year. "Russia is the most important trade
partner of Armenia and one of major investors in its economy," he said.

The Kremlin official also highly assessed the existing "solid legal
base" of relations between Moscow and Yerevan. Thus, in 1997 the sides
signed a treaty on friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance and
declaration on ally partnership into the 21st century.

Over 160 interstate, intergovernmental, and interdepartmental treaties
and agreements have been concluded between Russia and Armenia.

"It is planned that in the course of the visit, the parties will
exchange opinions on the most important international and regional
problems. In principle, the two countries’ stances are very close or
coincide here," the official said.

According to him, the sides intend "to discuss issues of further
interaction within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
– the improvement and reforming of the CIS structure." He said,
"The Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) and Eurasian
Economic Community (EurAsEC) where Armenia has obtained the status
of observer will also be a subject for discussion."

"It is planned to discuss issues related to the coordination of the
two countries’ efforts aimed at the improvement of the situation in
the Caucasus, using the potential of diverse cooperation, prevention
of new conflicts and settlement of remaining problems, in particular,
Nagorno Karabakh," the Kremlin administration representative said.
From: Baghdasarian

A1+

«GASPROM» BOUGHT ADDITIONAL STOCKS OF «ARMRUSGASARD»
[08:33 pm] 27 October, 2006

Russian `Gasprom’ has bought additional stocks of `ArmRusGasArd’. As a
result of the bargain `Gasprom’ has 58% of the shares of
`ArmRusGasArd’ instead of 45%.

Let us remind you that before now 45% of the stocks of `ArmRusGasArd’
belonged to the RA Government, 45% belonged to `Gasprom’ and 10%
belonged to organization `Itera’.
From: Baghdasarian

October 29, 2006

Nothing is secret
Your cellphone calls may have many listeners …

By _JEREMY LOOME_ (mailto:[email protected]) , EDMONTON SUN

On a typical evening, a man in Edmonton gets a phone call from a man
in Karachi, Pakistan.

The call is relayed through a series of stations via fibre optic cable
before bouncing off a satellite and back to the phone carrier’s
ground-based network. Near the man’s home in Pakistan – or perhaps
near the phone company relay station – a small but powerful antenna
array picks up the call. It streams the content to a second array,
which then bounces it back to another satellite, this time operated
not by the company, but by a branch of the Australian government.

They’ll probably never know it, but the two have just been caught in
the web of information gathering known as Signals Intelligence. Since
1947, a year before George Orwell penned his cautionary novel 1984 and
warned that Big Brother Is Watching, that’s what has happened across
the globe, to calls and messages of all sorts. If you’ve communicated
over distance with anyone, ever, there’s a chance someone listened in.

It’s frequently complicated by increasing security around
communications – particularly fibre optic lines – as well as laws
governing privacy. But if it’s transmitted through the air or
electromagnetically, someone can intercept it.

Canada has played a key role in that initial network, governed by a
top-secret agreement drafted in 1948 called UKUSA. Its contents have
never been revealed. In the years since the Cold War with the Soviet
Union prompted its creation, the original five nations operating
Signals Intelligence – which essentially amounts to the intrusion on
private communication from any nation but their own – have been joined
by dozens of others, each intent on both bolstering national security
and protecting national interests. It’s technically against
international conventions but nobody protests too loudly, because just
about everyone does it.

Along with surreptitious listening technology placed in other nations
and along the lines of communication that run between them, each
nation operates its own stations, chock full of an array of cutting
edge eavesdropping equipment.

In Canada, the most important sits in Leitrim, a sleepy community of
Ottawa that was just countryside when the station, codenamed CAF97,
was first constructed in 1941. Now, it sits a scant distance from the
end of Bank Street, where the city’s longest street turns into Highway
31, taking busy urbanites past the capital’s airport and subdivisions.
Although the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) never talks
about its operations publicly, Leitrim – a Canadian Forces base – is
long believed to have monitored Russian submarine and shipping
activities in the Arctic.

It’s been a decade since the network was revealed in Nicky Hager’s
book Secret Power: New Zealand’s Role in the International Spy Network
and it wasn’t until 1999, and the publication of a privacy report for
the European Union, that Signals Intelligence agencies admitted they
existed. By then, the end of the Cold War had left Signals
Intelligence -SigInt to those involved – adrift; they were relegated
in importance to the back of the bus, with efforts aimed at preventing
corporate and industrial espionage.

But Sept. 11, 2001, changed that. Now, Signals Intelligence is at the
forefront of the spy game, and Canada is up to its neck in it. Once
our neighbours came under direct attack, the needs of signals
intelligence came under scrutiny, with its budget rising from $140
million in 2000 to more than $220 million in same-year dollars by
2007.
– – –
That doesn’t, however, suggest that we now live in a world akin to the
film Enemy of the State, where rogue NSA agents chase down Will Smith
with technology that would make Bill Gates cry mercy. Legislation
prohibits our version of the NSA – the Communications Security
Establishment – from eavesdropping on our citizens, or even those with
dual nationality.

Of all the nations to employ SigInt, we have some of the most
stringently applied rules to protect our rights, says Bill
Robinson. The London, Ont., man runs an intelligence blog, Lux Ex
Umbra, and has become an expert on SigInts.

"The privacy concerns are legitimate and have to be balanced against
the requirements of intelligence gathering," says Robinson. "Certainly
we have been leaning heavily the other way, towards privacy
protection. We’re not being listened to all of the time, if only
because the SigInts community does not have the people or technology
to waste listening in on everyone, everywhere.

"We get the odd whistleblower from Canada with concerns but we tend to
have fairly marginal complaints levelled.”
From: Baghdasarian

AZG Armenian Daily #206, 28/10/2006

Karabakh issue

ARMENIAN TERRITORIES ARE ALSO DISCUSSED

The statement of RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian
made at the National Assembly yesterday, saying that
the issue of the territories will be discussed only
after the discussion of that of the status of Nagorno
Karabakh in the negotiations with Azerbaijan received
the positive evaluation of Tair Taghizade, press
secretary of Azeri Foreign Ministry. "The necessity to
return the Azeri territories is a fact for the
Armenian side," Taghizade said in the interview to
"Trend" agency. "RA Foreign Minister has made it quite
clear that the Armenian side realizes that the return
of the occupied Azeri territories is integral part of
the conflict settlement process," he said. Taghizade,
certainly didn’t specify that Oskanian meant the
Armenian territories, as well, including the Northern
and Eastern regions of Karabakh, Martouni, Martakert
and Shahoumian that are also fixed in the package, as
Mr. Oskanian emphasized yesterday. Mr. Oskanian
emphasized that all these issues are at different
levels but all of them are parts of the package.

By Nana Petrosian
From: Baghdasarian