12:23,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani customs checkpoint is not in the territory of Armenia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the Cabinet meeting today, commenting on yesterday’s decision of Azerbaijan that it is going to set up a customs checkpoint in the problematic section of the Goris-Kapan road.
“In order to avoid speculations, I would like to remind and draw your attention to the fact that the Azerbaijani checkpoint is not in the territory of the Republic of Armenia. The talk is about the Eyvazli section. Now question can arise whether it wasn’t possible to negotiate so that no border control was exercised on the cargo and the citizens of Armenia. It was possible, but the cost would be the corridor logic, which is unacceptable for us”, the PM said.
He said that Armenia’s position over the regional communications has been that they must be unblocked without any exterritorial context and customs and passport control.
“In other words, we haven’t discussed and will not discuss any corridor logic as I have stated repeatedly in the past. This is fixed in the Armenia-Russia-Azerbaijan deputy prime ministerial format and it’s important to note that this logic and agreement have been publicly confirmed also by the Russian Federation in the past weeks. Perhaps Azerbaijan made its yesterday’s decision in this context”, Pashinyan said.
He clarified that Armenia remains committed to the provisions of the 2020 November 9 and the 2021 January 11 statements, in particular those concerning the unblocking of all transportation and economic communications of the region.
“Moreover, we are interested in the unblocking of all economic and transportation communications of the region and hope to achieve concrete solutions in the future based on the principles agreed upon and announced in the trilateral working group”, he said.
He informed that Armenia as well will set up customs checkpoints as needed.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
12:49,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS. A slight stabilization in the COVID-19 situation is being noticed in Armenia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the Cabinet meeting today.
“We have a slight decline in the number of daily cases. I call for, ask and urge to keep the coronavirus-related rules, wear face masks and get vaccinated. I have been convinced by my own example that vaccination is the only mean that will help us to overcome the coronavirus pandemic and avoid deaths”, the PM said.
He informed that the number of fully vaccinated people in Armenia has passed 300,000, adding that the total number of vaccinations is over 954,000.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
14:13,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS. The Civil Aviation Committee says the NovAir airline requested authorization to launch domestic flights from Yerevan to Kapan.
The flights are planned to be launched from January 20, 2022 and will be operated twice a week.
Meanwhile, the government allocated 49,5 million drams to the “Syunik” airport of Kapan because the current lack of funding could jeopardize its future operations.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
13:08,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan hasn’t yet presented complete information on the procedure of implementing border control, Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan told reporters.
Asked under what legal basis some parts of the Goris-Kapan road are considered to belong to Azerbaijan, Grigoryan said there is “common sense”, and the reasoning of this common sense are the borders which existed in Soviet times.
“We haven’t had a demarcation and delimitation process but we have an approximate understanding about this border, the basis of which is the map from the 1920s. Based on this map we generally imagine the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” he said.
Asked what procedures Armenian nationals will have to go through in order to pass the given section of the Goris-Kapan road where the Azeri authorities have installed customs checkpoints, Grigoryan said that this part of the road has “a special status.”
“At this moment Azerbaijan hasn’t notified on the procedure, but logically the procedure might imply some payment or something, and citizens can pass after paying. But since we already have an alternative road, it’s already built and open, then naturally using this road would be more convenient for citizens,” he said.
He said that no community has gone under blockade as result, and connection between towns won’t be impacted.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
14:30,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan received Ambassador of Italy to Armenia Alfonso Di Riso, the PM’s Office reports.
Pashinyan congratulated the Ambassador on assuming office and wished success to the further development of the Armenian-Italian friendly relations.
The PM highlighted ensuring the continuous progress of the political and economic cooperation between Armenia and Italy and expressed confidence that concrete results are possible to achieve with the joint efforts of the governments of the two countries. The development of the bilateral economic cooperation was specifically emphasized, including with the holding of business forum and promotion of business ties. Pashinyan remembered with warmth his official visit to Italy in 2019 and highlighted the bilateral high-level mutual visits which give a new impetus to the expansion of cooperation in different areas.
Alfonso Di Riso assured that during his tenure he will make all efforts to contribute to the strengthening of mutual cooperation between the two countries. The Ambassador also emphasized the necessity of development of commercial ties and added that the Italian side is interested in discussing and implementing new investment programs with Armenia.
The sides considered prospective the expansion of cooperation in different branches of economy, including in high technologies, tourism, construction and agriculture, stating that there is a big potential.
The sides also discussed the activity of the Armenian-Italian inter-governmental commission, the possibility of holding a session in the future.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
15:18,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian government extended until June 20, 2022 the nationwide “quarantine” regime which was introduced instead of the state of emergency which was declared over COVID-19 in early 2020.
The “quarantine” regime allows the government to continue enforcing safety rules such as social distancing, mask wearing and other anti-epidemic preventative measures.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
15:24,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS. According to proposed legislative amendments, non-resident companies providing electronic services in Armenia must pay a value added tax starting from January 1, 2022, a senior tax official said at a press conference in Armenpress.
Lusine Ayvazyan, head of the department of management of information systems changes and impact assessment at the State Revenue Committee, said that works are already underway with the major international companies which provide electronic services in Armenia.
“We have held discussions with the representatives of Google, Facebook, Booking, Amazon, Netflix and other companies. I would like to inform that there hasn’t been any objection by any of these companies regarding paying a tax. All have expressed readiness to be registered. During the discussions a question was raised connected with making the system simple and more convenient. I also want to inform that a question was raised to set a reporting period for VAT calculation every three months”, Lusine Ayvazyan said.
These new amendments would contribute to the increase of the state budget funds, however, it’s still unclear how much money will enter the budget within a year.
Head of the department N1 of tax and mandatory fees methodology Asaneth Aloyan said that no regulations are envisaged for electronic trade by this draft.
The proposed legislative amendments also have a component for those resident companies in Armenia which provide electronic services.
She informed that there will be better taxation regulations for some electronic services. According to the current regulations, these services are taxed at a 20% VAT rate, but the expected changes propose applying 0% VAT rate. “For instance, I can state that a company based in Armenia, which provides online educational service abroad, in other words, the one who gets its service is non-resident, it may not be taxed”, she added.
As for the physical entities who provide electronic services in Armenia, the SRC representative said that there is no tax obligation for them.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
11:01,
PARIS, NOVEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS. The French foreign ministry released details from the meeting of Armenian FM Ararat Mirzoyan with Azerbaijani FM Jeyhun Bayramov under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs.
“One year after the end of the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, Mr. Jean-Yves Le Drian, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, today received MM. Ararat Mirzoyan and Mr. Jeyhun Bayramov, Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, for separate bilateral talks during their trip to France on the occasion of the UNESCO General Assembly.
At the end of these bilateral talks, the Minister opened a joint meeting of the ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan under the aegis of the three French, American and Russian co-chairs of the Minsk Group, intended to continue the momentum started in New York on September 23.
In these various exchanges, the Minister reiterated France’s desire to contribute to the strengthening of dialogue between the parties, capable of promoting the establishment of a lasting peace in the South Caucasus region, for the benefit of the populations of the region. He underlined our determination to maintain a strong involvement of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group in order to achieve this objective and recalled his availability to continue exchanges at political level with the two parties,” the French foreign ministry said in a press release.