Author: Mamian George

PACE MONITORING COMMISSION DECIDES NOT TO DEBAR ARMENIA FROM VOTING

ArmInfo
2009-01-27 11:31:00

ArmInfo. At yesterday’s session, PACE Monitoring Commission made a
decision not to debar Armenia from voting, member of the Armenian
delegation from "Orinats Yerkir" party Artsruni Aghajanyan told
ArmInfo.

He said the co-rapporteurs of the Monitoring Commission advanced
proposals on further monitoring to be serious enough, however, no
sanctions were suggested for exclusion of the Armenian delegation
from the poll.

RENESA CJSC BECOMES MARKET MAKER FOR ARARATBANK BONDS

ArmInfo
2009-01-26 22:42:00

ArmInfo. Starting January 27, 2009, Renesa closed joint stock company,
a member of the Armenian Stock Exchange (Armex) since January 24,
2002, will provide buy and sell prices for the second issue of nominal
coupon bonds of Araratbank open joint stock company, which was listed
on Armex on July 23, 2008 under ticker symbol ARBKB2. As Marketing
and Communications Division of NASDAQ OMX Armenia told ArmInfo, this
issue of Araratbank bonds consists of 40,000 bonds with nominal value
of AMD 10,000 and coupon yield of 9%p.a., and is due for redemption
on December 24, 2009. The issue is included in Armex’ Bbond list.

As the market maker of Araratbank bonds, Renesa cjsc will enhance
their liquidity ensuring that investors are always able to buy and
sell the bonds in the secondary market.

To note, the NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. is the world’s largest exchange
company.

It delivers trading, exchange technology and public company services
across six continents, and with over 3,900 companies, it is number
one in worldwide listings among major markets. NASDAQ OMX technology
supports the operations of over 60 exchanges, clearing organizations
and central securities depositories in more than 50 countries.

In January 2008, Nordic exchange operator OMX Group acquired 100%
of shares of the Armenian Stock Exchange (Armex) and the Central
Depository of Armenia (CDA). After the combination of NASDAQ and OMX
in March 2008, Armex and CDA have become fully owned by the NASDAQ
OMX Group, Inc.

ONLY THE FOURTH OF THE FEES PAID BY YEREVAN FAIRS GOES INTO STATE BUDGET

ArmInfo
2009-01-26 12:31:00

ArmInfo. On January 24 Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan
alongside with a number of government members visited a local jewelry
market ‘World of Gold’ in the center of Yerevan to meet with traders
and the administration. After the meeting, the premier convened a
working discussion, the governmental press release says.

Traders complained of the lack of elementary conditions for trading,
sanitary and fire safety. Many trade points still operate without
cash-registers. In addition, the premier was informed that the minimal
total fee paid by traders is 70,000 drams and only 18,000 drams of this
amount goes into the state budget and 5,000 drams into the pension
fund. The remaining amount is paid to the market administration for
accounting services, leasing and others.

After the meeting with traders, the premier had a discussion with
the government members and charged Head of the Committee for State
Incomes of Armenia Gagik Khachatryan to audit the activity of the above
jewelry market, which belongs to the Vagharsh & Sons LLC. Minister of
Labor and Social Affairs Arsen Hambartsoumyan was charged to study
the working conditions at all the fairs in the country. Minister
for Emergency Situations Mher Shahgeldyan was charged to investigate
safety conditions at fairs.

REPUBLICAN CHESS FEDERATION ACCOUNT ELECTORAL CONFERENCE TO TAKE PLACE ON JANUARY 26 IN YEREVAN

Noyan Tapan

Jan 23, 2009

YEREVAN, JANUARY 23, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenian Chess Federation’s account
electoral conference will take place on January 26 at Tigran Petrosian
Chess House. As Noyan Tapan correspondent was informed by Smbat
Lputian, Federation’s Vice-Chairman, the work done in two years will
be discussed, the inspection committee’s report will be heard at the
conference. The last issue on the agenda is the election.

TIGRAN KOTANDJYAN – LEADER OF 69TH ARMENIAN CHAMPIONSHIP

Panorama.am
14:13 22/01/2009

After the ninth round of 69th Armenian Championship Tigran Kotandjyan
is the leader of the championship – he has 7 points on his account.

Note that Ashot Anastasyan-Zaven Andriasyan, Avetiq Grigoryan-Arthur
Chibukhchyan pairs ended their games in draw in the ninth round. Today
the tenth round of the championship will take place.

In 64th Armenian Women’s Championship Lilit Galoyan leads the
competition, she has 4.5 points on her actives.

ALI ABBASOV: AZERBAIJAN’S RADIO/TV INTERFERENCE IN THE ARMENIAN AIRSPACE RESULTS FROM THE LATTER’S FAILURE TO MEET TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

Azeri Press Agency
Jan 21 2009
Azerbaijan

Baku. Ayur Veliyeva – APA-ECONOMICS. Armenian Ministry of
Communications and Transport has filed a grievance with the
International Telecommunication Union against Azerbaijan, complaining
about the illegal interference of Azerbaijan-based television/radio
broadcasts in its airspace, said Ali Abbasov, Azerbaijan’s Minister
of Communications and Information Technologies.

According to him, today, Azerbaijan regulates broadcasting with
its neighbors under a protocol agreed on with the International
Telecommunications Union.

"Some funds were made available from the President’s Reserve Fund
last year to install transmitters in the border areas so as to improve
the reception of radio waves.

The interference of our radio/TV transmission in Armenian airspace
results from the latter’s failure to meet technical requirements of
broadcasting. 13 large transmitting stations are being installed in
Azerbaijan’s border areas. Two transmitters will soon be deployed in
Lerik. With these stations, the interference of Armenian broadcasts
in our airspace will be over," he added.

"ARMENIA SHOULD STAY WITH NATO"

Panorama.am
17:10 20/01/2009

"In recent period the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen and the
representatives of European Union visit Karabakh more regularly, and I
guess, this is a good approach," said political expert Stepan Grigoryan
the head of "Globalization and regional cooperation analytical center"
in a press conference.

"Today it is more mentioned that without the direct participation of
Karabakh the issue can not be solved and this should be developed,"
he said.

Regarding the perspectives for Armenia to be integrated into NATO,
the political expert said: "I have been always saying that Armenia
should stay with NATO, but still the world is changing and we should
be carefull with it. We should adopt a balanced policy."

People’s Daily Online, China
Jan 18 2009

Gas summit kicks off in Moscow
January 18, 2009

A summit gathering Russian, Ukrainian, EU and other leaders began here
Saturday in a new push to end the gas dispute between Moscow and Kiev
that has left millions of Europeans without heating in the depths of
winter for more than a week.

Those attending the talks included Russian President Dmitry Medvedev,
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, EU Energy Commissioner
Andris Piebalgs and Czech Industry and Trade Minister Martin Riman.

Armenia’s president, the prime ministers of Belarus, Kazakhstan,
Moldova and Serbia, as well as officials from Turkey, Slovakia and
Bosnia and Herzegovina also joined the meeting.

Earlier in the day, Tymoshenko had a brief meeting with her Russian
counterpart Vladimir Putin, who just returned from a visit to Germany
and also attended the Kremlin talks. The two premiers were expected to
continue their talks later Saturday.

While EU spokesman Johannes Laitenberger has described the talks as
the "last and best chance" to resolve the gas crisis, Medvedev said at
the start of the meeting in the Kremlin that efforts to settle the
crisis had so far yielded no results.

"We’ll do everything to resolve the current crisis," Medvedev told
delegates attending the summit.

The Russian leader hoped the meeting would set up a permanent
mechanism to ensure the uninterrupted transit of Russian gas to Europe
via Ukraine.

Russia cut off gas supplies via Ukraine to Europe on Jan. 7, one week
after it halted supplies to Ukraine over the price of Russian gas Kiev
buys.

Russian gas giant Gazprom reopened its taps to Europe on Tuesday
morning under a three-way agreement signed by the EU, Ukraine and
Russia, but no gas reached Europe.

Russia accused Ukraine of blocking the gas flow, while Ukraine argued
that Russia’s choice of the gas route was technically "unacceptable."

Source:Xinhua

IMEX GROUP MAKES 1ST QUARTERLY COUPON PAYMENT THROUGH AMERIABANK

ARKA
Jan 15, 2009

YEREVAN, January 15. /ARKA/. "IMEX Group" LLC made first payment of
quarterly coupon of its bonds through Ameriabank closed joint stock
company on January 13.

The press service of Ameriabank reported that the bonds had been
completely placed by the bank (ISIN bond identification code
AMEMXGB21ER2, stock-ticker EMXGB1).

Total volume of bond issues of October 13 2008 was 1bln Drams. Nominal
value of each bond was 10,000 Drams and the maturity period 24 months
(with an offer on buyback within a year after placement). Coupon
percent is 11.50% with coupon payments to be made every quarter.

Ameriabank (former Armimpexbank) was established in July 1992 on the
basis of the Armenian branch of the USSR Vnesheconombank. On September
8, 1992, the Central Bank of Armenia issued a license to the bank.

TDA Holdings Limited, affiliate of the Russian Troika Dialog Investment
Company, became the bank’s principal shareholder (96.15%) in August
2007. In May 2008 the bank was renamed Ameriabank.

Armenian Stock Exchange awarded a status of market-maker of the bonds
of IMEX Group to Ameriabank on December 3 2008.

Profit of Ameriabank had totaled 830mln Drams by December 1 2008. The
bank’s total capital exceeded 20bln Drams; the authorized stock
was 18.2bln Drams. Assets of the bank grew by 5 times over 2008 and
totaled about 45bln Drams on D ecember 1. ($1=305.35Drams).

LEVON ARONYAN TO TAKE PART IN "CORUS" CHESS TOURNAMENT

ARMENPRESS
Jan 15, 2009

YEREVAN, JANUARY 15, ARMENPRESS: Armenian leading grand master
Levon Aronyan left today from Berlin to Holland to take part in the
"Corus" international chess tournament which has FIDE 21st class. The
tournament will be held in Wijk aan Zee town, Holland.

Sergey Movsisyan from Slovakia, Dutch Luke van Veli and Daniel
Stelvagen, Vassili Ivanchuk and Sergey Karyakin from Ukraine, Alexander
Morozevich from Russia, Tejmur Rajabov from Azerbaijan will also take
part in this tournament.