RUBEN VARDANYAN: “PROSPERITY MODEL REQUIRES WILL, AMBITIONS AND RISK”
Mediamax, Armenia
June 24 2013
– In our interview last February we spoke about the “industry of
charity”. Has your understanding of this term changed over this time?
– Many things have happened indeed since that interview. Thus,
for example, it was decided to set up the IDeA Fund (Initiatives
for Development of Armenia). Since the RVVZ Charitable Fund, whose
founders are me and my wife Veronica Zonabend, realizes projects not
only in Armenia, we decided that the “driver” of the Armenian projects
will be the IDeA.
To present the goals of IDeA in brief, I should say that we are
setting up this Fund in order to overcome the skepticism and increase
social confidence. We want to implement charitable projects which will
influence Armenia’s future and help it pass from the survival model,
which currently dominates in the country, to the model of prosperity.
To this end, we need to transform the people’s way of thinking and
teach them to think and to work 20-30 years ahead. We are trying to
restore people’s faith that the “impossible is possible” by means of
creating mechanisms for the realization of complex long-term projects.
We have formulated 7 basic principles which help us choose the projects
and work on them:
– A long-term vision and plan spanning several decades; – Its scale
and symbolic importance; – Collegiality and internationality; –
Multiplier effect (infrastructure, social, cultural); – Local community
involvement; – Gradual operational self-sufficiency; – Meeting high
international standards and creating a new benchmark locally.
I’ll try to explain how these principles work in detail on examples.
A long-term vision and plan spanning several decades. Non of projects
is designed for 1-2 years; their horizon of planning and success
makes 10-20 years. Thus, for example, the idea of “Tatev Revival”
was born in 2003. The realization of the project began in 2008 and
it is planned to be over in 2017 when the Tatev Monastery will mark
its 1111th anniversary. The idea of creation of Dilijan International
School was born in 2006 when we were seeking variants to educate our
children. In 2010, the President of Armenia planted a symbolic tree on
the territory of the future school and in 2014 the school will welcome
its first students. The school will work to the full extent in 2023.
Undertaking such long-term projects we strive to show on our own
example that the future of the country cannot be built in 2-3 years.
It is a hard work which requires involvement for decades.
Its scale and symbolic importance. Overall $80 million was invested
into “Tatev Revival” project by the initiators of the project, the
Government of Armenia, private individuals from various countries
of the world. This is a very serious amount. However, the scale is
measured not only by the volume of investments but also by changes in
the level and quality of life in the region. As for Tatev, I should
say that over 140 000 people (and this is a very serious figure) have
used the aerial tramway leading to the Monastery since October 2010.
Tourism development entails infrastructure development. It creates
new sources of income and new workplaces for the local population. In
case of Dilijan International School, the volume of investments into
the construction of the campus, infrastructure and equipment totals
$150 million. We are going to attract serious funds in the future,
which allow allocating scholarships and grants to cover the tuition
fees of 70% of the students. Such projects are vital not only on
the local level but also on the international one, since they draw
attention to Armenia: for example the “Wings of Tatev” is registered
in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s longest non-stop
reversible aerial tramway, and children from at least 60 countries
will study at Dilijan International School.
Collegiality and internationality – projects unite a lot of people
of various nationalities and religions. This is one of the key
principles. It is very important to realize that these are not Ruben
Vardanyan’s projects. For example, the donors of “Tatev Revival”
project are not only Armenians, Russians or Americans, but also Kurds,
Indians and Jews. Overall 140 people from 18 countries take part in
the financing of the project.
The criterion of our success is not the fact that we have managed
to build the longest aerial tramway in the world but the fact that
the significant part of the donors of “Tatev Revival” have decided to
back the Dilijan International School project too. If people continue
donating to new projects it means that we have managed to convince
them of the correctness and attractiveness of our ideas, and it is
a clear indicator of success.
This principle intersects with two others – the scale of our projects
and the multiplier effect laid in them: most of the people having no
ties with Armenia take part in the realization of projects in this
country. Many of them have never been here before and now they come
and become the friends of Armenia.
Multiplier effect (infrastructure, social, cultural). The basic goal
of “Tatev Revival” is certainly laid in the name of the project – to
restore the gem of the medieval Armenian architecture and one of the
most important Armenian shrines. However, on the way to this goal we
are also solving many other vital tasks. It’s already obvious that the
construction of the “Wings of Tatev” cableway became the catalyst of
development of tourism in the region. If before the realization of the
project only several dozens of tourists were visiting the monastery
during the day, today the figure already makes several hundreds on
week days and sometimes even 1000 people on weekends. Ten new hotels
have opened in Goris in recent years, which is a bright evidence of
the multi-effectiveness of our project. At the same time, we work
on the creation of new types of tourism in the region – hiking and
cycling tours on special mountain routes, as well as rock climbing.
The revival of Tatev influences the surrounding villages as well,
whose inhabitants now have a chance to find a worthy work.
Another very important component of “Tatev Revival” project is the
provision of a more comfortable communication with Artsakh. Taking
into consideration the fact that the road from Yerevan to Stepanakert
is very tiresome, many people, including the Armenian citizens,
didn’t want to visit Artsakh. Today, the development of the tourism
infrastructure allows the Armenian travelers and foreign tourists to
spend the night in Goris, enjoy the beauty of Tatev and then continue
their journey to Artsakh.
The construction of Dilijan International School is also a pronounced
multi-effective project. First of all Armenia will enrich the list of
countries, which have international schools meeting modern educational
standards. Secondly, the teenagers who will study in Dilijan will be
able to study at the best universities of the world in the future,
and the years they have spent in Armenia won’t be in vain. These young
people will become sort of “envoys” of our country contributing to its
popularization. Thirdly, the realization of such a large-scale project
will bolster the development of small and medium entrepreneurship in
Dilijan and creation of workplaces. I can continue this list but I
would like to highlight the most obvious aspects.
Local community involvement. This is a very important and at the same
time one of the most complicated principles to realize. I wouldn’t
like people to perceive our projects as some “foreign bodies”, as
something imposed from “above”. People working in Tatev or Dilijan
should feel that it’s not simply a job and “their” project is part of
their life. Let’s take, for example, the Yerevan Cascade. The reaction
on the first sculptures was reserved, sometimes even hostile. However,
today they have already become part of a natural Yerevan environment
and if anyone decides to take away Botero’s “Cat” I am sure many
would worry and ask: “Where is our cat?”
Gradual operational self-sufficiency. We have to understand that
charity is the initial significant capital investment, necessary to
establish an infrastructure. It will never return to the donors. We
have to create mechanisms for the gradual transition of the projects
to self-financing, when the projects will exist irrespective of the
donors. For example, the aerial tramway in Tatev is an expensive
engineering-technical construction and all the incomes from the sale
of tickets are directed to its maintenance.
Meeting high international standards and creating a new
benchmark locally. Our projects in Armenia meet the highest world
standards. The Tatev cableway was built by an Austrian-Swiss company
Doppelmayr/Garaventa – world’s leader in this area. As for Dilijan
International School, thanks to the project which was worked out by
British architect Tim Flynn and is realized by a Russian RD Management
Company, Armenia will have the first large complex of public buildings
meeting the most modern environmental standards that perfectly fits
into the landscape of Dilijan National Park. The Board of Trustees
of the school comprises internationally recognized people of various
nationalities, who are ready to be in charge of the project. This is
another evidence of the fact that we are setting a very high bar to
our undertakings.
As for the industry of charity on the whole, it’ s a relatively new
notion, as a result of which there are only a few people who can do
charity professionally. Very often charity is perceived as an emotional
outburst, not a professional activity. People don’t understand that
this is a very serious work, just like the commercial activity. Of
course many learn it. Some people do it faster, some slower, bur
the understanding of the industry of charity in the society is,
nevertheless, improving.
– You have frequently stated that for you business is not only a way
to earn money but also a means to achieve positive changes. Do your
projects in Armenia help change for the better?
– I hope they do in some way. I think even small changes are very
important and I am happy that much has been realized so far. It’s
another thing that being a restless man by nature and very exigent to
myself and to people around me, I worry that things are moving very
slowly. At the same time, I understand that the speed of developments
in Armenia is very slow and things move through inertia. In any case,
I hope we will manage to realize everything we have scheduled within
several decades.
– There exists a very fashionable term today – crowd funding: people,
mainly young, start collecting money in social networks to help sick
children or to solve some local municipal tasks. Can wealthy people
help such enthusiasts create kind of a framework within which they
will be able to realize their good intentions?
– I can say we already have an example of crowd funding: several
years ago people reacted to the initiative of Yerevan Magazine and
took part in the fundraising to restore David Sasuntsi monument and
the small fountain on the Republic Square in Yerevan. Although it’s
hard to solve large-scale charitable tasks through crowd funding,
I think it’s a very good and important undertaking. Nevertheless,
there are a lot of differences between the crowd funding and industry
of charity: crowd funding in only one of the mechanisms.
– In our last interview you said that “Armenia-2020” project was an
“attempt to plough up the mental field in Armenia”. Unfortunately,
the attempt was not very successful, since Armenia’s development
models set forth within the project and scenarios were not discussed
by political forces, media and the public on the whole.
– The answer is quite simple – we have to keep on “ploughing”
(smiling). There will be no harvest if you plough up the filed
only once. I can’t agree with the opinion that “Armenia-2020” was
fruitless. The idea of a state-private partnership, on which the
project was based, was realized through the establishment of the
National Competitiveness Fund of Armenia. Let’s not forget either that
the government of Armenia invested $20 million into “Tatev Revival”
project, making a significant contribution to its realization. So, the
restoration of Tatev Monastery is a joint work of private investors,
the Armenian Apostolic Church and the government, where the National
Competitiveness Fund of Armenia is the coordinator between the project
participants.
IDeA Fund is the product of “Armenia 2020” project. So, in fact,
many ideas and approaches we have once discussed gradually transform
into concrete projects.
– In you opinion, what is most lacking in Armenia today?
– I think it would be incorrect to give assessments, since I don’t
live here. At the same time, as a person who regularly visits Armenia
and can view the processes from “outside” I see several fundamental
problems.
Although there is a lack of workplaces in Armenia, it’s is extremely
difficult to find professionals ready to devote themselves to projects,
who are not limited by working hours only. At the same time, many
people are ready to leave for Moscow or anywhere else and do a much
less attractive job there.
I have to say that today the Armenian society is dominated by a
somewhat distorted perception of success: people think that the
successful person is not the one who works much and earns money, but
the one who has money but doesn’t work. The important factor is not
the knowledge but the diploma. This is a very depressing phenomenon.
Personal and professional relationships are also often mixed here. As a
result of this the discussion of a particular business problem often
turns into a “bazaar”.
There exists another aspect as well: the richest people in the country
aren’t the largest taxpayers and their business is built not on the
talent or intellect but on proximity to the authorities. There are
different game rules for different groups, which are defined not by
the talent and the ability to work hard but by the ties with certain
circles. Anyhow, there are indeed some good success stories too. And I
am happy that some Armenian businessmen participate in the realization
of our projects.
I think it happens because people have lost faith in the future, their
dreams. Armenia sticks to the survival model today. When you live in
such regime, you don’t think about long-term perspectives. Even the
elite lacks a “long” planning horizon, this is why the most important
decisions are made without thinking about the future as if we live here
and today only. This is particularly visible in urban development:
a lot of high buildings are being built in Armenia today, mainly in
the center of the cities. Such a rapid saturation of the space with a
large number of objects inevitably impacts the quality of construction,
as well as the concomitant infrastructure. And no one cares about
the ideology, aesthetics, or about convenience and adaptability of
these houses to people’s lives, especially children.
New buildings should not only fit to the urban environment, they
should help the city preserve its integrity and identity. This can
be done only if you love your city, take care of it and think about
its future. Unfortunately, I don’t feel that people love their city,
their country. I don’t feel that they are proud of it.
In order to turn the tide, we have to increase confidence first of
all, and then expand the planning horizon. But the model of survival
that exists in Armenia today doesn’t allow it. This is the problem
of not only authorities but also the society and the people. They
are building a small vendor kiosk, then attach a veranda to it, then
a balcony and then this construction turns into a shop, which later
transforms into an empire, but it is still built of small patches yet.
Over the last century Armenians have lived under the yoke of aliens,
and it became one of the reasons that we are very good mediators and
assistants, but we become the heads of large corporations very seldom.
The model of survival exists everywhere, whereas we don’t have a
prosperity model which requires ambitions and risk.
– Can the model change in the foreseeable future?
– Everything is possible. This is a matter of vision, will and sequence
of actions. The goal of IDeA is the effective transformation of
people’s way of thinking, which is necessary to pass to the prosperity
model. It requires sequence of actions and cannot be done within a day.
Ara Tadevosyan talked to Ruben Vardanyan. –
http://www.mediamax.am/en/news/interviews/7625/