Author: Vardapetian Ophelia

3RD ANNUAL ARMENIAN MICROELECTRONICS OLYMPIAD TO BE HELD IN SEPTEMBER

ARKA
July 4

The third annual Armenian Microelectronics Olympiad is to be held
in Yerevan in September as part of the Week of Synopsys in Armenia,
press office of Synopsys Armenia Company reported on Friday.

Last year about 130 students and young specialists took part in
Olympiad.

Vazgen Melikyan, president of Program Committee of Olympiad and
director of Synopsys Armenia Educational Department said everyone who
has sufficient knowledge not only in the sphere of microelectronics
and electronic design but also in programming, mathematic methods
and algorithms are invited to participate in this Olympiad.

"The Olympiad is a good opportunity to present your knowledge and
skills, evaluate them and determine the right way to develop them",
he said.

The aim of the program is to stimulate further development of
microelectronics in Armenia, discover young, talented specialists,
raise interest in microelectronics among young specialists, understand
young specialists’ knowledge of microelectronics and adjust educational
programs as necessary in the future.

Competitors may be no older than 30.

The first prize is a notebook, second – AMD 300,000 (two prizes)
and third AMD 150, 000 (three prizes).

Other, special prizes are also anticipated.

Synopsys, Inc entered Armenian market in October 2004 after signing
an agreement on merging Leda Design and Monetary Arset into Synopsys
Armenia Company. ($1= AMD 303.75).

ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER PARRIES ACCUSATIONS AGAINST EXECUTIVE POWER

ArmInfo
2008-07-03 18:04:00

At the July 3 session of RA government, Armenian Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan parried several accusations against the executive power in
the oppositional press.

According to T.Sargsyan, today there are three serious accusations
against the government, however, these accusations are far from being
true. The government is being accused of the fact that 70-80% of
gasoline import in Armenia makes up shadow circulation, and thousands
of wagons are imported illegally. The prime minister noted that this
is impossible and such rumors aim to mislead the public and discredit
the authorities.

The second accusation is connected with allegedly artificial price
boost in Armenia to enrich the authorities. T.Sargsyan pointed out
that in the early 90s hyperinflation was observed in Armenia under
the influence of external factors. "Both then and now the authorities
were not interested in high inflation as this is connected first and
foremost with their image", he said. He added that today they think
in the world how to restrain the unprecedented inflation of fuel and
food commodities. As compared with 2007, 9,9% inflation was fixed in
Armenia and 8% was conditioned by the increase in prices of imported
goods, he said.

The prime minister also noted that the sale of gold and exchange
reserves is also an object of state speculation. The Central Bank
took a political decision to export gold to Switzerland as early
as 1994. Metallic exchange deposit accounts in USD were opened in
Switzerland. The physical being of gold in Armenia couldn’t contribute
to settlement of economical and social problems, therefore a decision
was taken to make this gold a profitable asset, Sargsyan said. In 2003
the CBA took another decision to convert the accounts into pounds,
as a result Armenia obtained $2,3 mln net profit which was completely
transferred to the state budget, he added. The main accusation is
that if the gold had been sold not in the 90s but in 2008, it would
have been possible to obtain much bigger profit with due regard for
the increase in gold prices. However, Sargsyan said that following
this logic one shouldn’t have held privatization of enterprises in
the 90s as today these assets are much more expensive.

BRITISH CO-REPORTER OF PACE EDWARD O’HARA TO VISIT REGION

Trend News Agency
02.07.08 16:24
Azerbaijan

Edward O’Hara, reporter on studying cultural heritage in the South
Caucasus of the Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe (PACE) for Culture, Science and Education and MP from the
Great Britain tries to visit the region. "I hope that the visit by
O’Hara to the region will take place," PACE chairman Luis Maria Puig
briefed to media in Baku.

Reporter on studying situation of the cultural heritage in the South
Caucasus of the PACE Committee for Culture, Science and Education was
appointed in 2005. The decision adopted in this regard says that the
reporter O’Hara is expected to visit Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia
soon. However, the visit did not take place for the last three years.

Azerbaijan stated that it is ready to provide conditions for
reporter’s visit. The official Baku believes that O’Hara should
visit Nagorno-Karabakh occupied by Armenia and study the situation of
the monuments of this region once he visits Azerbaijan. At the same
time, the reporter should study the situation of the old monuments
of Azerbaijan in the territory of Armenia. However, Armenia does not
want reporter to visit Nagorno-Karabakh beginning from the Azerbaijani
territory.

Armenia claims that Azerbaijan has destroyed all old ‘Armenian
monuments’ in the territory of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of
Azerbaijan and wants the reporter to visit Nakhchivan. Azerbaijan
stated that it is ready to provide conditions for reporter’s visit
to Nakhchivan.

Last week O’Hara refused to visit region because of the political
difficulties he faced.

PACE President noted that he discussed O’Hara’s visit to the region
in the meeting held in Azerbaijan.

PRESS RELEASE
Parliamentary Assembly Communication Unit
Ref: 486b08
Tel: +33 3 88 41 31 93
Fax :+33 3 90 21 41 34
[email protected]
internet:

The President of PACE on an official visit to Azerbaijan

Strasbourg, 30.06.2008 – The President of the Council of Europe
Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), Lluís Maria de Puig, will be making an
official visit to Azerbaijan from 1 to 3 July 2008.

He is scheduled to meet, among others, the President of the Republic,
Ilham Aliyev, the Speaker of the Milli Mejlis (Parliament), Ogtay
Asadov, the Prime Minister, Artur Rasizade, and the Minister for Foreign
Affairs, Elmar Mammadyarov.

The President of PACE will also hold meetings with members of the
Azerbaijani delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly, representatives of
various political parties and representatives of civil society, the
media and the diplomatic corps in Baku.

In particular, Lluís Maria de Puig will discuss with them the action
to be taken on Resolution 1614 (2008) on the functioning of democratic
institutions in Azerbaijan, which the Assembly adopted on 24 June.

***

Le Président de l’APCE se rend en visite officielle en Azerbaïdjan

Strasbourg, 30.06.2008 – Le Président de l’Assemblée parlementaire
du Conseil de l’Europe (APCE), Lluís Maria de Puig, se rendra en
visite officielle en Azerbaïdjan du 1er au 3 juillet 2008.

Des rencontres sont prévues notamment avec le Président de la
République, Ilham Aliyev, le Président du Milli Mejlis (Parlement),
Ogtay Asadov, le Premier Ministre, Artur Rasizade, et le Ministre des
Affaires étrangères, Elmar Mammadyarov.

Le Président de l’APCE tiendra aussi des réunions avec les membres
de la délégation azerbaïdjanaise auprès de l’Assemblée
parlementaire, des représentants de différentes parties politiques,
ainsi qu’avec des représentants de la société civile, des médias
et du corps diplomatique à Baku.

Avec ses interlocuteurs, Lluís Maria de Puig évoquera notamment les
suites à donner à la Résolution 1614 (2008) sur le fonctionnement
des institutions démocratiques en Azerbaïdjan, adoptée par
l’Assemblée le 24 juin dernier.

The Parliamentary Assembly brings together 318 members from the national
parliaments of the 47 member states.
President: Lluís Maria de Puig (Spain, SOC) ; Secretary General of the
Assembly: Mateo Sorinas.
Political Groups: EPP/CD (Group of the European People’s Party); SOC
(Socialist Group); EDG (European Democratic Group);

ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe); UEL (Group of the
Unified European Left).

GORAN LENNMARKER: "UNFORTUNATELY, GOLDEN CHANCE ON SETTLEMENT OF NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT WAS NOT RESULTED WITH PEACE AGREEMENT"

Azeri Press Agency
June 30 2008
Azerbaijan

Tamara Grigoryeva-APA. "I have been engaged in supporting efforts of
OSCE MG in the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict for more than
four years", Goran Lennmarker, President of OSCE PA said at summer
session, APA reports.

He noted that there was golden chance for the settlement of the
conflict.

"Unfortunately, such golden chance has not been resulted with peace
agreement. The parties have opportunities to change the situation and
continue negotiations on Nagorno Karabakh conflict. If Azerbaijan
and Armenia have political will, it will be possible to sign an
agreement. New war in the region is impossible, I do not want to
think about it and we should avoid the threat", he said.

THE COUNTRY ITSELF DETERMINES ITS COURSE TAKING INTO ACCOUNT ITS OWN SYSTEM OF VALUES

KarabakhOpen
27-06-2008 17:07:11

NKR FM Georgy Petrossian’s commentary on adoption of PACE Resolution
1614 "On the functioning of democratic institutions in Azerbaijan".

How would you comment on the thesis mentioned in PACE Resolution 1614
that sustainable democratic development will be extremely difficult
in Azerbaijan as long as the country’s territorial integrity has not
been restored?

One can achieve sustainable democratic development only when the
country itself determines its course taking into account its own
system of values and does not seek for pretexts to be justified in
front of the international structures for non-fulfillment of its
international and legal commitments.

Without going into details on the alleged violation of Azerbaijan’s
territorial integrity I would like to note that in contemporary
international practice we can observe cases when the country being at
war with another state or having numerous conflicts with its neighbors,
can at the same time pretend to be one of the best democratic states
like Israel, India, etc.

I wonder whether the presence of political prisoners in the country
is a result of violation of territorial integrity. Is the mass media
suppressed, are the journalists beat up by the same reason? To all
appearance, these questions are rhetorical.

On the whole, Europe’s position on keeping balanced attitude towards
the Southern Caucasus countries is understandable. At the same time,
it arouses bewilderment that maintenance of this approach as presented
by Azerbaijan passes along the line of cornerstone priorities of the
Council of Europe on which all the European architecture – democracy,
supremacy of law are founded.

While the democracy in the NKR is a natural non-opportunistic choice
for the people of Nagorno Karabakh, which is not appreciated properly
by Europe, in Azerbaijan we observe its convulsive imitation. Within
this context, we would like to advise the Council of Europe to take
the democracy in Azerbaijan and the democratic processes taking place
as a whole in the region most seriously and with all responsibility. We
are convinced that only democratic Azerbaijan can become that neighbor
with whom the Nagorno Karabakh Republic can speak the same language.

The same resolution runs that the PACE takes note of the United Nations
General Assembly Resolution of March 14, 2008. Would you express your
attitude concerning this fact?

A day before, Chairman of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers
objectively noted that the settlement of the Azerbaijani-Karabakhi
conflict is outside of the competence of the Council of Europe, it
is dealt with the OSCE Minsk Group. Within this context, it causes
regret that the Council of Europe cites the document, which was not
supported by the Minsk Group co-chair countries.

Fixation of the given formulation in the document of this international
organization can only affect the course of the Azerbaijani-Karabakhi
conflict settlement and does not promote the creation of positive
negotiation climate via dialogue declared by the Council of Europe.

RUSSIAN INVESTMENTS IN ARMENIA EXCEED 1.2 BILLION DOLLAR MARK

NOYAN TAPAN

JU NE 25

The meeting of the Armenian president Serge Sargsian and the
Russian president Dmitry Medvedev in the Kremlin on June 24, which
was concluded by the signing of a joint statement, was followed by
Armenian-Russian negotiations in an extended staff, NT was informed
by the press service of the Armenian president.

Suggesting to focus on the trade and economic relations, D. Medvedev
said: "Progress in this regard is quite good: the growth in commodity
turnover is considerable, progress by two-thirds has been made in
recent period. This figure is approaching one billion dollars, and
it is a good result. The amount of mutual investments is increasing
too. In particular, Russian investments exceeded the 1.2 billion dollar
mark. This is an essential milestone in our relations and a very good
basis for further development of our trade and economic cooperation".

Agreeing that Russian investments have reached a high level in
Armenia and the bilateral trade and economic turnover is growing,
Serge Sargsian at the same time said: "Our goal is that in 12 or
18 months we will measure these indices in billions rather than
in several hundred millions". He also attached great importance to
development of cooperation in the humanitarian sphere.

The extended-staff negotiations were followed by a meeting of the
heads of the two countries with journalists.

PUBLICITY GUARANTEE OF EQUAL CONDITIONS FOR ARMENIA’S TAXPAYERS, PREMIER STATES

ARKA
June 25

The principle of publicity is supposed to become the main means of
creating equal conditions for all taxpayers in Armenia, RA Premier
Tigran Sargsyan stated at a briefing at the RA Government.

"An effective means of publicity will ensure public confidence in
the Government’s commitment to carry out comprehensive reforms on
the one hand, and the public will make sure that all the taxpayers,
including big businesses, are equal before law," the Premier said.

He pointed out that the reason for businessmen’s discontent is the
need to ensure equal conditions for all the taxpayers, not high taxes
as such.

"In this context, a tide of discontent is mainly rising against big
businessmen, as the public is not sure that they pay all the taxes
in time," T. Sargsyan said.

The Premier announced the Government’s intention to prepare amendments
to Armenia’s legislation. The amendments provide for sanctions to be
applied against tax evaders.

This will allow the public to exercise control over the Government’s
following the tax equity principle.

In January-March 2008, Armenia’s 1,000 largest taxpayers paid a total
of 93.7bln AMD. The K-Telecom mobile operator (VivaCell brand) tops
the list of the largest taxpayers published by the RA Taxation Service.

The company paid a total of 6.87bln AMD to Armenia’s state
budget. Among Armenia’s largest taxpayers are ArmRosgasprom,
ArmenTel, Zangezur copper and molybdenum plant and Flash oil-importing
company.

ARMENIA TO ASSUME BSEC PRESIDENCY FOR SIX MONTHS

armradio.am
25.06.2008 13:50

Mr. Gegham Gharibjanian, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of
theRepublic of Armenia gave an interview to "Capital" newspaper and
"Arminfo" news agency on the occasion of the Black Sea Economic
Cooperation Organization’s Day (BSEC)

– What do you think is a true value of the BSEC as a regional
organization and how is it integrated in the world economic relations
in the view of new global challenges?

The Black Sea Economic Cooperation, one of the influential and
representative organizations in the region, was launched in 1992
as an initiative bearing a specific responsibility for promoting
multilateral mutually beneficial economic cooperation and securing
stability and prosperity in the Black Sea region. The BSEC conception
has been to comprise those who are bound up with the Black Sea and
have standing political and economic interests even when sometimes
policies and approaches essentially differ.

The Organization, that tries to address the most substantive
challenges of regional economic cooperation and contributes to its
project-oriented agenda, is also called for developing the common
principles of regional cooperation as part of the integration process
in Europe and a higher degree of integration into the world economy.

I will not be mistaken if say that the BSEC-EU interaction in
particular after the milestone meeting in Kiev on February 14, is of
potential importance to the future of a result-oriented cooperation
in the Black Sea region as it has a greater impact to address the
real needs of the region.

The BSEC has become a major instrument in the process of
intensification of the Black Sea strategies and plays an important
role in its development and formation of shared values and interests.

Addressing the challenges which BSEC Member States encounter, and the
difficulties affecting the multilateral process, the Organization’s
strategy should concentrate on the comparative advantages of regional
cooperation, the priority sectors, infrastructures and investments
and the strategic significance of the region in the context of the
wider European economy.

– What are the priorities of the BSEC economic agenda?

>From the very beginning, as it was provided for in the BSEC Chapter,
the Organization was aimed at fostering cooperation among the
member-states in the major economic fields – energy, transport,
agriculture and agro-industry, health care, environmental protection,
tourism, science and technology, communications, trade, collaboration
among customs authorities, combating organized crime etc.

Gradually, along with the mentioned priorities, the new ones, such as
good governance and institutional renewal, development of small and
medium entrepreneurship, emergency assistance, combating international
terrorism and others have emerged in the Black Sea region and found
their place on the BSEC agenda.

– What kind of joint programs does the BSEC carry out with other
international organizations?

There is a number of international organizations the BSEC collaborates
to in different formats. With some of them it signed Memoranda of
Understanding (UN, EU, CIS).

I would mention just one of the initiatives – Black Sea Trade and
Investment Program – which is executed by the UNDP. The Program
is aimed at promoting investment and trade links within the BSEC
region. It creates the capacity within the Black Sea business support
institutions to take advantage of intra-regional trade and investment
expansion opportunity. The beneficiaries of the Program are small
and medium-sized enterprises and business support organizations of
the BSEC member states.

As you know, one of the last presentations of the Program was organized
in Yerevan on April 3rd this year with the efforts of the Armenian
Development Agency.

– As you mentioned, the BSEC is a project-oriented organization. How
can a member state make use of the BSEC funds for project
implementation?

There is a Project Development Fund operating within the framework
of the BSEC. The Fund, that provides financial support to eligible
proposals and projects, was established for the purpose of facilitating
the elaboration and promotion of projects with a focus on regional
cooperation and major economic development in the BSEC area.

The Fund operates on the principle of voluntary contributions from the
BSEC member-states, related bodies, observers and third parties. The
amount of contribution is 30.000 USD or Euros. Only entities from
those member-states who made a contribution may have priority to
benefit from the Fund.

The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank is another financial
institution operating within the framework of the BSEC. The Bank is
established by the BSEC Member States and supports regional economic
cooperation by providing project financing and supporting public
and private enterprises in its member countries. In recent years,
the BSTB invested 2.1 million Euros in the "Beer of Yerevan" CJSC,
23 million USD in the "RusAl Armenia" CJSC and 3 million USD in the
ACBA (Credit Agricole Bank Closed Joint Stock Company).

Due to the efforts of the Government of Greece a new financial
institution, the Hellenic Development Fund, has been established
recently. The BSEC has been included in the Official Development
Assistance Programs of the OECD which allows the Organization promoting
through the Fund economic cooperation and development projects in
the region.

– What challenges are currently being faced by the BSEC as an
organization for regional economic cooperation?

The fundamental principles of the BSEC, which is determined to promote
a lasting and closer cooperation among the states of the Black Sea
region and to enhance the mutually advantageous economic cooperation,
are provided for in the BSEC Charter’s Preamble and secured in a
number of provisions of other statutory papers of the Organization
adopted by the member-states.

At the meantime, the delegations of some member-states to the BSEC
Organization have been applying continuous efforts to raise global
and regional political issues of a sensitive nature including those
of international conflicts and to include the politically motivated
formulations in the respective documents.

This approach is inconsistent with fundamental provisions of
statutory documents of the BSEC and tends to shift the forum into
one of deadlocked and time-wasting discussions on unsettled political
conflicts and, accordingly, could not be acceptable for the most of
BSEC member-states who feel the fate of the BSEC keenly.

Besides, referring to the recent letter of the Turkish Foreign Minister
addressed to the BSEC Ministers of Foreign Affairs, it is to be noted
that despite the unsettled issues existing in bilateral relations
between our countries, we share the former’s deep concern on new
interim as well as international challenges addressing durability of
our organization. Indeed, the organization is wasting its precious
time also on non-effective and pointless procedural issues, instead
of fostering the necessary practical measures to maintain reformation
processes within the organization.

– What are the main priorities of the Republic of Armenia in the
BSEC and how do you envisage our country’s prospects within the
organization?

Armenia is one of the founder-countries of the BSEC. We have the BSEC
representation in Istanbul.

There is a representative of the Republic of Armenia in the
BSEC Permanent International Secretariat who is responsible for
international economic policy and BSEC-EU cooperation – one of the
key operational sector of the organization. A representative of the
Armenian Foreign Ministry is a board-member of a number of the BSEC
related bodies.

As for the main priority areas, I would single out the following root
issues for Armenia within the framework of BSEC cooperation: transport
and energy, agriculture, science, technology and communications,
education, environment and tourism, public administration, cooperation
in emergency assistance and combating crime etc. We have joined
to almost all agreements signed in these areas, particularly on
transport and energy cooperation. The Republic of Armenia is currently
a country-coordinator for energy cooperation.

Since this coming November our country is assuming the six-month
Chairmanship in the BSEC. This is a privilege and great
responsibility. The Armenian Government and public institutions
involved have already set about the preparation activities and
proceeding to be thoroughly prepared for duly implementation of their
duties during the forthcoming Chairmanship-in-Office.

We, as a BSEC member-state and the next Chairman of the organization,
are confident that the BSEC is playing a significant role in the
regional as well as the world economic and social life, so we will
redouble our efforts to withstand the world global challenges to keep
this organization alive forever.

ARMENIA MET MOST OF COMMITMENTS BEFORE GRECO

armradio.am
23.06.2008 16:56

The process of accomplishment of anti-corruption strategy reforms
and commitments and the future steps were discussed during the
recurrent sitting of the Monitoring Commission on Implementation of
the Anti-Corruption Strategy on June 23.

President of the Commission, Assistant to RA President Gevorg Mheryan
informed about the process of discussion of the report on Armenia
during the sitting of the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO)
held in Strasbourg on June 6-13. It was noted that the Armenian
delegation did a great volume of work and achieved considerable
results.

Head of Armenia’s delegation to GRECO, Deputy Chief of the State Tax
Service of Armenia Arthur Osikyan presented the results of discussion
of the First and Second Round Compliance Report on Armenia. He noted
that our delegation managed to implement considerable corrections in
the preliminary report presented by GRECO specialists. In the final
report it was noted that Armenia met 12 (50%) of the 24 commitments
assumed, 9 (38%) of the commitments were partially implemented. Armenia
failed to meet 3 (12%) of the commitments. The head of Commission
informed that this is the first case in the history of GRECO that
a state manages to ensure 50% compliance as a result of first and
second rounds. The results of Serbia and Turkey considerably yielded
to the indices of Armenia.

Gevorg Mheryan informed that the President was informed about the
3 commitments that Armenia failed to meet. President Serzh Sargsyan
gave instructions to corresponding agencies to consistent works are
underway in this direction.