Author: Vardanian Garo

ARMENIA’S CENTRAL BANK LETS CURRENCY FLOAT

Armenian Public TV
March 3 2009

[Presenter] The country’s Central Bank decided in an extraordinary
session today to return to the floating rate policy. From now on
the Central Bank will carry out interventions in the currency market
only in case of sudden fluctuations. Why has this decision been made
now? The Central Bank said that in the past two months commercial
banks managed to accumulate great dollar reserves; the system does
not have any liquidity problem, is financially stable and it is the
right time to shift to the floating dram policy [the dram is Armenia’s
national currency].

[Correspondent speaking over video of a news conference] The Central
Bank is restricting its interventions in the currency market, the
entity announced this morning. The [Central Bank’s] Board summed up
the system’s current indices in its session today; the capital of
commercial banks has increased by 40bn drams [about 108m dollars]
starting from the beginning of the crisis up to now; there is no
problem of liquidity at all. In the recent period, due to sales of
dollars by the Central Bank in the Nasdaq OMX Armenia stock market,
the amount of foreign currency in Armenia’s commercial banks has
reached 700m dollars. This is a sufficient index even if the country’s
demand is at its greatest level. Nothing threatens the stability of
the financial system. After this analysis the Central Bank decided
to return to the floating exchange rate policy.

[Artur Javadyan, the chairman of the Central Bank speaking at
the bank’s session] According to assessments by the Central Bank’s
specialists, which are based on several models and methods well-known
in academic circles, which are used by central banks of a few other
countries and have been localized for Armenia, the equilibrium average
rate is expected to be 360-380 drams per dollar.

[Correspondent speaking over video of bureaux de change in streets]
Exchange rate offices in the capital [Yerevan] reacted to the Central
Bank’s statement in a few minutes. The highest level is 380 [drams
per dollar]; the market will be regulated soon, when commercial banks
start selling their accumulated reserves of the currency. The Central
Bank explains its decision by weakening the dram not gradually, but
abruptly, by market expectations. If the devaluation was carried out
slowly, according to the Russian scenario, it would have been hard to
restrain speculations. At this moment it is known that an exchange
rate greater than 360-380 cannot exist in our market. The country’s
financiers also consider it important that there was no outflow of
money from Armenia and that’s why dram deposits were replaced by
dollar deposits, but did not leave the banking system. The index of
the gross foreign reserves did not decrease either. At present it is
1.2bn dollars. Banks that provided loans in dollars will benefit,
and those who took drams will lose. This will also influence the
population in the form of price hikes – the price of goods purchased
with dollars will increase in the domestic market.

[Javadyan] Due to some factors, the inflation will reach about 8-9
per cent at the end of the year, this is also as forecast by the
International Monetary Fund.

SCHOOL FOR WEAK-EYED CHILDREN WILL BE GIFTED FURNITURE TO AMOUNT OF USD 88 THOUSAND

PanARMENIAN.Net
04.03.2009 17:13 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On Mar. 4 Japanese Embassy in Armenia and Human
Health Armenian public organization concluded an agreement providing
for USD 88 000 worth household and school furniture to N16 School
for the visually impaired.

This has been the third agreement concluded between Human Health public
organization president and Japanese Embassy in Armenia Economical
Department Secretary Iida Djhiro. The first grant was extended to
Kharberd Orphanage for Mentally Challenged Children, and the second
one to N15 Yerevan School for the Deaf and Mute.

250 children from unprovided families, 80 of who are living in school,
study at School N16.

Singing, drawing, dancing, clay modeling groups are functioning at
the school.

"Number of school children has not grown, though 40 children needing
help and constant medical observation are registered in Guymri
territory only," school management noted.

"We’re trying to create favorable conditions for children and hope
they will benefit from our projects", Iida Djhiro said.

Besides donations to schools the Japanese government is implementing
the construction of electric power station in Yerevan and also,
presented several fire engines to Yerevan fire department.

ARF DASHNAKTSUTYUN WILL RUN FOR MAYOR

Lragir.am
17:31:17 – 03/03/2009

The ARF Dashnaktsutyun will run in the election of mayor of Yerevan on
May 31, announced the member of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun Ara Nranyan. He
also said that the Dashnaktsutyun is working out an electoral
program which will include the proposals of the Dashnaktsutyun on
environmental, town-planning and other problems of the capital. He also
noted that it is very difficult to rag elections in Yerevan because
the population of the capital is politically active and besides the
presence of the media, NGOs and international organization is of
great importance.

"BJNI" REMINDS THE VIOLATIONS

A1+
[01:47 pm] 03 March, 2009

The "Bjni" mineral water factory" CJSC announced today once again that
the auction of its assets was organized with violations of the law.

"We have stated several times about the violations and the most evident
one was the lot price of the assets presented at the auction, which
was lower than the demanded price. The 6th article of the RA law on
"Bankruptcy" clearly compels the Service for Compulsory Enforcement of
Judicial Acts to immediately terminate the case and appeal to court to
acknowledge the company bankrupt. The calculations are the following:
the reserve price for a lot is near 4 billion 450 million drams, while
the demanded amount makes up 5 billion drams. According to the verdict
reached by the administrative court, the company was supposed to pay 4
billion 68 million drams as a payment for natural use. Then, another
81 million was supposed to be paid for state tax and 207 million as
a compulsory enforcement payment. Thus, the compulsory enforcement
officer had to distribute these amounts, while the additional amount
had to be returned to the owner.

According to the RA law on "Bankruptcy", the expenses for the case
and the taxes that emerge from the sale of assets must be calculated
in the demanded amount. Thus, the SCEJA was obliged to subtract the
value added tax from the amount and give the difference to the owners
and that difference makes up 740 million drams. Thus, if we calculate
how much money is needed to meet the demand, the lot had to be paid
5 billion 96 million drams, but the amount paid was 4 billion 441
million 500 thousand drams.

The SCEJA refuses to give the company materials of the case, which
further deepens the doubt of the company that there may be false
documents in the case.

The company is deprived of the right to receive information about the
case. The compulsory enforcement officer makes unlawful decisions. The
company has only been given the annexed version of the contract but
not the original contract.

We ask the following to the SCEJA: when are we going to receive all the
materials of case 07-807/08, including the contract? Will we receive
a written response on the distribution of paid amounts, including
information on the value added tax that rose from the compulsory
auction and was it paid or not? Did the buyer pay the cadastre price
for the sold land or not? Was the payment for the auction made?

If the SCEJA announces that there is no value added tax from the sale
of assets, the unprecedented position must be applied to those whose
assets had been sold by auction or will be sold.

We also ask you to give us the official text of the notice about
the compulsory auction for assets which must state the conditions of
the auction, including name of lots, limits on lots. If the lot is
a subject, the physical state and/or production date, the reserve
price of the lot, the right for being a lot, the deadline, as well
as other conditions," as stated in the statement made by Director
General of the "Bjni" mineral water factory" CJSC Harutyunyan.

Let us remind that "Bjni" was purchased by an auction by deputy
Ruben Hayrapetyan.

JAVADYAN: $700MLN ACCUMULATED IN ARMENIAN BANKS

ARKA
March 3, 2009
YEREVAN

Total volume of currency accumulated by Armenian banks amounts to
$700mln, said Chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) Artur
Javadyan.

"From the beginning of the crisis up to now, the capital of Armenian
banks increased by 40bln AMD and liquidity by $280mln. Today liquidity
of banks amounts to $700mln, which means today currency accumulated
in banks amounts to $700mln," he told reporters on Tuesday.

Besides, Javadyan noted banks managed to attract some $250mln of
long-term credit means from well-known international financial
institutions without any state intervention.

He stated the monetary and credit policy aimed at solving issues of
financial stability gave significant results and stressed it will
soon be aimed at ensuring stability of prices.

"Our interventions in stock exchange will be minimal and will have
a nature of soothing sharp currency changes," he explained.

On Tuesday, the CBA made a decision to abridge its interventions in
the foreign exchange market, returning to the policy of the floating
exchange rate. The CBA experts forecast that the "average weighed
U.S. dollar exchange is expected to range from 360 drams to 380 drams
per $1".

MEDIATORS PRESENT THE RESULTS OF THEIR MEETINGS IN BAKU AND STEPANAKERT TO ARMENIA’S PRESIDENT

armradio.am
02.03.2009 18:21

President Serzh Sargsyan today received the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs,
Yuri Merzlyakov (Russia), Matthew Bryza (USA) and Berbard Fassier
(France) and the Personal representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office
Andrzej Kasprzyk.

The interlocutors turned to the meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani
presidents in Zurich, discuss issues related to the current stage of
the negotiations on the Karabakh issue.

President Sargsyan underlined that the statements contradicting
the logic of the negotiation process do not contribute to achieving
progress.

The Co-chairs informed President Sargsyan about the results of their
meetings in Baku and Yerevan.

ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT PLAYING CRUCIAL ROLE IN ECONOMIC PROCESSES AMID CRISIS: PRIME MINISTER

ARKA
March 2, 2009

YEREVAN, March 2. /ARKA/. The RA Government’s involvement in economic
relations is inevitable, as it plays a crucial role in economic
regulation, RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said during his meeting
with Armenian entrepreneurs in Moscow.

"As a result, we are facing a global mistrust in what is going on. In
other words, the principles of recession and the government’s measures
loom," he was quoted saying.

He called lack of logic a sign of a new world. "We are witnessing
changes in criteria and system of values," the premier said, adding
money is not a success criterion nowadays.

According to the prime minister, global market participants fail
taking correct positions, as they lack a common vision.

"It is obvious that the institutes of private property and competition
are cracking down, with governments playing more crucial role in
economic processes," Sargsyan concluded.

APA, Azerbaijan
Feb 28 2009

State Commission: `Three Armenian servicemen yielded themselves
prisoner to Azerbaijan’

[ 28 Feb 2009 13:07 ]

Baku. Hafiz Heydarov `APA. `The State Commission for Prisoners,
Hostages, Missing People confirms the fact that three servicemen of
the Armenian armed forces yielded themselves prisoner to Azerbaijan’,
secretary of the commission Shahin Sailov told APA.

He said the surrendered Armenians were in the military uniforms and
they were detained by the civilians and handed over to the military
servicemen. Sailov didn’t announce the names of surrendered Armenians
and said the State Commission was investigating the issue now.
Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan said they have not obtained such
information yet.

The Armenian military servicemen crossed the line of contact toward
Kuropatkino Village of Azerbaijan’s Khojavand Region last night and
voluntarily surrendered to Azerbaijani soldiers.

The Calgary Herald (Alberta)
February 25, 2009 Wednesday
Final Edition

Exhibit to showcase immigrant artists’ talents

by Dawn Smith, Calgary Herald

When Armenian-born sculptor Vahe Tokmajyan immigrated to Calgary
almost four years ago on the advice of a friend, he had no idea of the
struggles he would face.

Armed with a master’s degree in fine arts from the Institute of Art
and Theatre in Yerevan and a long list of sculptures shown all over
the world, he expected to be welcomed into the Calgary art world.

But Tokmajyan struggled to get noticed, especially when competing for
public art.

"In my career, I always did public art," said Tokmajyan. "But here, it
is really difficult."

That prompted his involvement with the Calgary Multicultural Centre’s
immigrant art exhibit, which will take place during Canada
Multiculturalism Week, June 25 to 27, at the Epcor Centre for the
Performing Arts. The exhibit, which is the first of its kind in
Alberta, is open to emerging and professional artists born outside
Canada and now living in Alberta.

"It is extremely difficult for immigrant artists in Calgary," said
Anoush Newman, executive director of the Calgary Multicultural
Centre. "All they need is one opportunity."

The desire to provide that opportunity, while educating the community
and Calgary art world about immigrant art, is the reason behind the
event. The hope is that once artists show their work, it will be
easier for them to stay connected with the Calgary art community and
one another.

"Many newcomers who are artists give up their art," Tokmajyan
said. Established immigrant artists can encourage them, he said.

FIRST PUBLIC ISSUE OF STOCKS IN ARMENIA TO BE REGISTERED ON STOCK EXCHANGE BEFORE END OF 1ST Q

ARKA
Feb 27, 2009

YEREVAN, February 27. /ARKA/. The first public issue of stocks in
Armenia is to be registered on the stock exchange before the end of
the first quarter, Armen Melikyan, director general of NASDAQ OMX
Armenia Stock Exchange, said on Thursday. He refrained from pointing
out the company that is going to enter IPO market.

He said the company would announce that personally. "However, we
find mass appearance of companies on the IPO market wrong. It would
be better companies to pass relevant training and ensure transparency".

Melikyan thinks companies have plenty to do for entering IPO market
and potential issuers should understand that very well.

"It isn’t important how many companies and which of them are planning
to enter the market, their willingness to be transparent is important",
he said.

He said that IPO market gives large room for issuers, which have to
be transparent.

He thinks that if Armenia has at least 20 companies listed and ready
for public activity in 2010, it will be able to place on record fast
growth of capital market.

In January 2008, OMX, Scandinavian stock exchange operator, bought 100%
of Armenian Stock Exchange and Central Depository’s shares.

After NASDAQ and OMX merger in March 2008, the company NASDAQ OMX
Group, Inc became the sole holder of Armenian Stock Exchange and
Central Depository’s shares.

On January 27, 2009, Armenian Stock Exchange was renamed NASDAQ
OMX Armenia.