Author: Khoyetsian Rose

INVESTMENTS OF SOUTH-CAUCASIAN RAILWAY IN ARMENIA MADE 443.8 MILLION RUBLES WITHIN NINE MONTHS OF 2009

ARKA
Oct 16, 2009

YEREVAN, October 16. /ARKA/. Investments of CJSC "South-Caucasian
Railway" (SCR) in Armenia made 443.8 million rubles within nine months
of 2009.

Press-service of SCR informed ARKA that within the last 9 months actual
funding of investment program of Concessionaire made 443.8 million
rubles, including 371.3 million rubles on the account of borrowings
from Open JSC "RR" (Russian Railway) allotted by the agreement 2008 and
72.5 million rubles – on the account of own resources of CJSC "SCR".

Thus, for the upper construction of the railway 193.0 million rubles
is allotted from which 120.6 million rubles is for buying material
for upper construction of the railway and 15.3 million rubles for
buying railway equipment. During the reporting period, for repairing
administrative and industrial buildings 13.7 million rubles was
allotted and for repairing the buildings – 88.1 million rubles.

During nine months of 2009 SCR investments for the vehicles was
99.2 million rubles, including 80.4 million rubles for capital
reconstruction of 20 passenger wagons. Total expenses of the company
during 9 months of 2009 were 1083.7 million rubles, 727.8 million
rubles of which was for infrastructure and 355.9 million rubles for
the vehicles.

During nine months of 2009 the main funds were 1236.8 million rubles,
441.7 million rubles from which was for the buildings, 28.6 million
rubles for railway vehicles and equipment, 5.9 million rubles for the
equipment of wireless connection, 170.3 million rubles for special
car transport, 574.1 million rubles for locomotives and cargo wagons
and 16.2 million rubles for computer equipment and main assets.

Non-finished capital investments for the end of the reporting period
were 178.1 million rubles which include non-finished assets and
inventory holdings in the stores. Management of "Armenian Railway"
(AR) is implemented by CJSC "South-Caucasian Railway" (SCR) which is
100% daughter enterprise of Open JSC "Russian Railway".

SCR accepted on its balance the rolling stock of AR on July 1, 200
according to the concession agreement as of February 13, 2008 about
the transfer of state CJSC "Armenian railway" under the management of
RR for 30 years with the right of prolongation of 10 years by mutual
agreement of the parties (1 ruble – 13.16 drams).

ON THE OCCASION OF THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF STANDARDS, RA PRIME MINISTER TIGRAN SARGSYAN VISITED THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS

We dnesday, 14 October 2009

On the occasion of the International Day of Standards, RA
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan visited the National Institute of
Standards. The Prime Minister walked round the labs and got acquainted
with the Institute’s current status and development opportunities.

The head of government congratulated the staff of the Institute on
their professional holiday.

Then the Prime Minister called at the training-publishing center of
the accounting department of Armenia’s bookkeepers and auditors’
Association where he handed in qualification certificates to the
graduates.

In his congratulatory remarks, Tigran Sargsyan said in particular,
"The national institute of standards is marking its professional
holiday. The main mission of the Armenian association of bookkeepers
and auditors is to help introduce international standards countrywide,
and see that our businessmen should adhere to the logic of such
standards. You can help ease the life of our businessmen, households,
manufacturers by providing for our security. Said security has a
physical and economic dimension. We all will feel much better living
in a law-abiding society where economic entities shall state their
financial position fairly and accurately. Economic entities are sure
to win public trust as soon as their financial statements come to
reflect the actual state of affairs enabling consumers to get a fair
image of their position.

Unfortunately, we still face serious problems in the field of
accounting and auditing as the transactions carried out by some
entities are not transparent to the public and households do not
trust in their financial statements which is a strong impediment to
economic development. The strengthening of the Association will help
build up public confidence, largely reduce expenditures and eliminate
most of redundant intermediation.

According to the Prime Minister, there are serious concerns as to
whether the Association is well-organized and can develop without
further financial assistance."

The staff trained by the Association, including the auditors, will
be in greater demand on the labor market as audit companies will
have extra workload starting from 2010: there is a legal requirement
stipulating that large enterprises shall be studied by independent
audit companies, with the findings having to be published afterwards:
"This means that hundreds of large enterprises will need the services
of highly qualified audit companies."

The head of government further noted that we have such audit companies
which endorse financial statements without any checks and conformity to
accounting regulations. The market should be cleared of such companies.

The executives of the Association were told to seriously discuss ways
of preparing qualified staff supposed to assume responsibility for
auditing economic entities starting from the year 2010.

RA-UKRAINE TRADE AND ECONOMIC RELATIONS’ POTENTIAL NOT USED IN ITS ENTIRETY

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.10.2009 20:00 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan met Ukraine’s
Industrial Policy Minister, co-chair of RA-Ukrainian intergovernmental
committee on trade and economic collaboration Volodymyr Novytsky ,
governmental press service reported.

Welcoming the guest, RA Premier noted that RA-Ukraine trade and
economic relations’ potential is not used in its entirety, despite
the decreased product turnover currently registered.

Intergovernmental committee’s work has to be intensified to
stimulate bilateral economic development in the spheres of machinery
construction, transport, aviation, agriculture, IT, healthcare,
science and education, Tigran Sargsyan emphasized.

ARMENIAN POLITICAL PRISONER ARSHALUYS HAKOBYAN SET FREE ON SIGNED OATH

Tert.am
15:09 16.10.09

Political prisoner Arshaluys Hakobyan’s next court hearing took
place today at the Court of First Instance of Center and Nork-Marash
Communities of Yerevan.

Hakobyan, a press photographer and member of the Helsinki Association,
was arrested in June 2009 after he, as a representative of the Armenian
Helsinki Association, had observed the municipal elections in May
2009. Accusations were brought against him according to Article 316,
part 1 of the Criminal Code of Armenia, Showing Resistance against
Law Enforcement Bodies.

During the hearing, the prosecutor argued to change the precautionary
measure and to delay the court investigation. As announced by the
Republic of Armenia prosecutor’s press service, the prosecutor
concluded that the accusation before Hakobyan was subject to change.

In conclusion, the court ruled to change the current precautionary
measure towards Hakobyan from restraint to a signed oath not to flee
from the country.

KERKORIAN WILL NEVER INVEST IN TURKEY

News.am
16:18 / 10/16/2009

Vice-President of the Lincy Foundation Harut Sassounian refuted
information available on the German Dwworld website, that Kirk
Kerkorian intends to make investments in various Turkish regions
after Armenian-Turkish border opening. In his letter to NEWS.am Harut
Sassounian called this "misinformation and phony." "Mr. Kerkorian
has never had or has such intensions," Sassounian underlined.

The Co-Chair of Armenia-Turkey Friendship Group Yener Altin told
Dwworld that Kerkorian intended to make investments in various
Turkish regions, particularly create the hotel chain in South-East of
Turkey. Altin also informed that Kerkorian is originally the citizen
of Turkish Maras region. However, the Lincy Foundation Vice-President
refuted this information as well.

TURKISH TV STATION PROHIBITED FROM WORKING IN AZERBAIJAN

Tert.am
12:01 17.10.09

Yesterday, Armenian journalists met a number of Turkish media
representatives within the frames of the meetings organized by the
International Hrant Dink Foundation.

Tert.am’s correspondent asked F. Mete Cubukcu, the news director of
one of Turkey’s leading television stations NTV (seen in the photo
below), how the dispute between the TV station and Turkey’s Foreign
Minister ended.

In early October, Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs prohibited NTV
journalists from attending a ministry-organized press conference. It
became apparent that the reason for this was connected with
NTV journalist Bilge Egemen who had visited the Republic of
Nagorno-Karabakh and prepared a series of reports, which were
then broadcast from Karabakh. For that reason, NTV did not receive
accreditation during the time when Turkish President Abdullah Gul
was in Nakhichevan for the summit of heads of Turkic-speaking states.

According to Cubukcu, since NTV is a major broadcast station, there
can’t be any serious bans or obstacles for them in Turkey. However,
NTV isn’t allowed to work in Azerbaijan, since Azerbaijani Foreign
Ministry sent a letter to his Turkish counterpart with a request to
prohibit NTV from broadcasting from their territories, and Cubukcu
said the station is not going to dispute the decision.

THOMAS ROYCE TO COMPETE ON RING BEFORE SINGLE FIGHT VS. VAKHTANG DARCHINYAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.10.2009 11:15 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Ahead of boxing fight vs. Armenian light weigh
sportsmen, WBA/WBC World Champion Vig Darchinyan (32-2-1, 26), WBC
temporary world champion Thomas Royce (31-11-1, 22) of Mexico will
compete against South Africa’s Evans Mbamba (16-0-0).

Royce vs. Darchinyan fight is due in California on December 12.

RUSSIAN EXPERT: KARABAKH SETTLEMENT AND IMPROVEMENT OF ARMENIAN-TURKISH RELATIONS SHOULD RUN SIMULTANEOUSLY

ARKA
Oct 13, 2009

YEREVAN, October 13. /ARKA/. Vasily Likhachev, deputy chairman of
the Russian Federation Council Committee on foreign affairs, thinks
Karabakh settlement and improvement of relations between Armenia and
Turkey should run simultaneously.

"It is impossible to solve all the problems at once by using a
universal methodology. That’s why we think Karabakh settlement
should go along with improvement of Armenian-Turkish relations," the
Russian expert said Tuesday in Novosti International Press Centre at
Yerevan-Ankara-Moscow video discussion focused on Armenian-Turkish
relations.

He thinks that very complicated record of Armenian-Turkish relations
should be taken into account in establishing relations.

In his opinion, Armenian-Russian protocols signed Saturday in Zurich
pave a way for mutual understanding and cooperation.

On Saturday, Armenian and Turkish foreign ministers – Edward
Nalbandyan and Ahmad Davutoghlu – signed protocols on establishment
and development of bilateral relations.

The signed protocols need to be ratified by Armenian and Turkish
parliaments.

There are no diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey, and
the state border has been closed since 1993 on Ankara’s initiative.

Likhachev said that the protocols lay legal ground for cooperation
between the two countries and give some roadmaps.

He said that the protocols require key political players to take all
the confrontations existing in the region into account.

He meant South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Karabakh conflict broke out in 1988 when Artsakh, mainly populated
by Armenians, declared its independence from Azerbaijan.

On December 10, 1991, a few days after the collapse of the Soviet
Union, a referendum took place in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the majority
of the population (99.89%) voted for secession from Azerbaijan.

Afterwards, large-scale military operations began. As a result,
Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven regions
adjacent to it.

On May 12, 1994 Bishkek cease-fire agreement, put an end to the
military operations.

Since 1992, talks brokered by OSCE Minsk Group are being held over
peaceful settlement of the conflict. The group is co-chaired by USA,
Russia and France.

A EUROPEAN BELARUS
By Franco Frattini and Vygaudas UÅ¡ackas

European Voice
13.10.2009 / 16:54 CET

The foreign ministers of Italy and Lithuania argue that the anomaly
of Belarus’s self-isolation may slowly be ending.

Can Belarus, 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, find its
place in a Europe that has overcome many difficulties to become both
united and democratic? How does Europe see its relations with this
country in the future? These are but a few questions that diplomats
and politicians are now asking.

For most of that time – the past 15 years – Belarus has chosen to
isolate itself from the European continent. This self-isolation is
an anomaly: Italy and Lithuania are convinced that Belarus is an
indivisible part of Europe, for reasons of geography, history and
religion. Moreover, separation benefits neither Belarus nor Europe.

Over the past year, though, there have been some shift in the
relationship between the EU and Belarus. Last August, after Belarus
took a few steps that the international community had been waiting
for, releasing the former presidential candidate Alyaksandr Kazulin
and other political prisoners and permitting the newspapers Narodnaya
Volya and Nasha Niva to be published and distributed. The EU took
a reciprocal step and decided to suspend the visa ban imposed when
the presidential election in 2006 failed to comply with democratic
standards.

The EU took one more step and in May this year invited Belarus,
together with Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, to
join its Eastern Partnership programme, a regional forum intended to
facilitate economic and political engagement with the six countries, as
well as to strengthen Belarus’s human and social links with the rest of
Europe. The European Parliament, in its turn, adopted a resolution on
Belarus setting out its view of the direction of further collaboration.

If this policy of "gradual engagement" is to bring good results,
Belarus needs to demonstrate its commitment to the values of democracy,
human righ ‘s development and peaceful co-existence.

The simple fact is that Europe and Belarus need each other, for very
practical reasons. Belarus needs integration with Europe to ensure
its economic development and social stability. Europe needs Belarus
because its geopolitical location makes it an important energy partner
– 20% of the gas that Russia sends to Europe crosses Belarus – and
an important partner in the effort to curb illegal trade and migration.

For these reasons, stronger ties between Belarus and Europe are also
in the interests of Russia. An independent and stable Belarus cannot
and must not be seen as being directed against Russia.

Italy and Lithuania have always spoken out in favour of a policy of
gradual opening up to Belarus. We are now actively fostering that
process, through bilateral instruments. On 16 September, Belarus’s
president, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, visited Vilnius to take part in the
International Economic Forum and to meet his Lithuanian counterpart,
Dalia GrybauskaitÄ-. On 30 September, one of the authors of this
article – Franco Frattini – visited Minsk, reciprocating a visit to
Italy last spring by Belarusian Foreign Minister Serhiy Martynov.

Italy and Lithuania also support the aid that the EU might provide to
help Belarus overcome the dramatic social problems that are emerging
there, caused in part by the world economic crisis.

We expect Belarus to start to feel the advantages of ties with
Europe. What we insist is that the persecution of people for their
civil and political convictions or public activities, limitations on
the independence of the media and non-governmental organisations must
truly become a thing of the past. Future elections have to comply
with recognised international standards set by the Organisation for
Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). And Belarus must respect
the territorial integrity of every country, Georgia included.

Europe and Belarus are building a partnership. It will become a full
partnership when mutual trust is complete.

Vygaudas foreign minister of Italy.

© 2009 European Voice. All rights reserved.

IT LEADERS’ MEETING WITHOUT TIES TO BE HELD IN NOVEMBER

Panorama.am
16:33 14/10/2009

The leaders of Information Technologies enterprises will have their
next meeting without ties from 27 to 29 November in Agveran, Karen
Vardanyan, the executive director of Union of Information Technologies
Enterprises told the reporters.

According to him the highlights of the meeting will be the reforms in
customs and tax fields, export of IT products, importing and other
topics. Vardanyan said that representatives from Economy Ministry,
customs and tax departments will attend the meeting.