Category: 2023

 17:15,

YEREVAN, MARCH 31, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan received the President of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France, Laurent Wauquiez, and the delegation led by him, who were on a two-day visit to the Syunik Province, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister.

In his welcome speech, the Prime Minister particularly said,

"Dear Mr. Wauquiez,

I welcome you in the Republic of Armenia and I am glad to meet you again. We are also pleased to note that the relations between Armenia and France have high dynamics not only at the highest political level, but also in the level of decentralized cooperation.

Of course, we are in a very difficult period, and our country and the region are experiencing very difficult times. In this sense, such visits are also very important in terms of conveying moral strength and support, including political. I would like to emphasize the importance of your visit to the starting point of the Lachin Corridor and the Syunik Province and, of course, your messages regarding the existing situation.

I would also like to hear your impressions from the visit. I hope you have noticed that despite all the problems, we are making very serious investment projects in the republic, including in the Syunik Province. massive construction works are being carried out: roads, schools, kindergartens, other infrastructures, because our approach is that despite all the challenges, we should not deviate for a moment from the development agenda of Armenia. Recently, the European Union's investment and economic plan was launched in Syunik Province, which is extremely important. We also hope that the presence of the EU civilian mission along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border will become an additional factor contributing to stability and security. I welcome you once again."

The President of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France said,

"Thank you very much, Mr. Prime Minister.

This is the second time we are meeting, and I have the greatest respect for what you are doing for Armenia in this very difficult period. Last time I was very impressed with your strength and your will to move forward with very specific plans.

You are asking about my impressions from this visit. first of all, I want to say that it was very important for us to go to the Syunik Province and be the first French local authority to establish cooperation with the region, because we understand very well how important Syunik is for the territorial integrity of Armenia."

The parties emphasized the consistent efforts of the international community towards stability and peace in the region.

The interlocutors also discussed the prospects for the development of multi-sector partnership and the expansion of trade and economic ties. In this regard, the signing of the Cooperation Agreement between the Syunik Province and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region on March 29 was highlighted.

The Prime Minister noted that the Armenian Government consistently continues the policy of balanced territorial development, and in this regard, attached great importance to the strengthening of decentralized cooperation with France and the exchange of experience between regions. Nikol Pashinyan referred to the reform agenda of the Government of Armenia, measures being implemented to improve the investment environment. Laurent Wauquiez thanked for the information, noting that French companies are interested in doing business in Armenia.

The sides exchanged ideas on opportunities for implementing joint projects in the fields of agriculture, healthcare, education, infrastructure, and renewable energy.

 17:30,

Doing Digital Forum, set to take place in Yerevan on April 5, will bring together leading worldwide experts to explore the latest trends and future developments in digital transformation, a topic of critical importance in today's rapidly evolving digital landscape. The Forum's founder and organizer is SPRING PR Company, and the co-organizer is Ameriabank. Forum's keynote speaker is Chris Skinner, a renowned fintech digital transformation global expert. As a leading financial services company, Visa is an innovation partner of the DDF. Armenpress talked to Diana Kiguradze, Visa Country Manager in the Caucasus, about their insights into the digital transformation agenda worldwide, the company's views on the future of payments and plastic cards, and their expectations for the upcoming event. 

Why is it important today to advance the digital transformation agenda worldwide?

Digital transformation is both, a driving force of progress, but also an answer to many challenges we are facing today. It connects and brings the world together, helps businesses to be more effective and governments to improve performance; it saves resources and give us lots of data to understand better what happens around us. It gives people access to resources, products and services that make life more convenient or just fun. Visa has been a global promoter and enabler of digital payments for more than 60 years, uplifting everyone everywhere. Electronic money and payments are vital part of cashless and paperless economy. Sometimes we even say that we all live and work in a “phygital” (physical + digital) world. Especially for younger generations, as they don’t even know what the world was like before invention of Internet, smartphones, apps.

Referring to digital acceleration, we cannot avoid impacts of pandemic environment since the COVID-19 pandemic outburst; digital transformation has been accelerating across all sectors in the whole world. Developed e-com, delivery and contactless payments were crucial factors that ensured businesses’ survival during the crisis and helped people to have access to services and goods during strict lockdowns. And even now, as most countries gradually return to normality with restrictions lifted and physical stores and offices reopened, society sustains these new digital habits adopted during lockdown. In a way we are speaking about digital evolution. With each new challenge we adapt and become even stronger.

Cashless future is our strategic direction, and we are working to enable it every day for everyone. Currently we observe certain trends, that can shape the payment industry in the coming years. First, we are happy to see that payment around the globe go contactless. Second, it is growth of embedded finance: with innovations making once complex and expensive banking infrastructure easy and accessible, companies adding different financial services and products to their offers improving customer experience. We are talking about real time payments in apps and messengers, BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) products; recurring payments and subscriptions, etc. Digital and crypto currencies will also grow, and open banking will be driving innovations and changes in banking and payments. 

We also see growing trend of ‘super apps’ that serve as one universal platform where consumers can get many different services, make purchases, communicate and play, not leaving those applications.

In its turn, to meet the ever-changing customer needs, we will continue to evolve Visa to be a network of networks and being the best way to pay and be paid. We are trusted by more than 3 billion of cardholders, millions of merchants, thousands of financial institutions worldwide.

The process of digitalization is accelerating with a mind-boggling speed now, and changes that took five years a decade ago are now happening much faster. We live in the era of “phygital”, where technology is used to bridge the digital world with the physical world and provide a unique interactive experience to the user. Visa seeks to provide the most comfortable payment solutions to customers – whether they prefer just to tap a card or pay with a smartphone or another gadget. 

We constantly work with our partner banks in Armenia to drive digital payments, as we see year after year, more people opt for simpler and more convenient ways to pay and be paid. According to Visa data, 8 out of 10 transactions in Armenia are contactless. These figures indicate an upward trend in the country's cashless economy development and the population's willingness to further evolve in this direction. As a result, cash digitization in Armenia can be considered a current key trend. We expect that the digital shift will continue, e-commerce will expand further, which will eventually accelerate online transactions. 

On the top of that, moving towards a digital future is a mutual process: Visa develops technologies, businesses implement them, and customers enjoy them, and by such joint efforts we accelerate the advancement of cashless economy. 

And I truly believe that soon there will be no need for plastic cards, as even now cardholders more and more using virtual ones, adding them to digital wallets, so they can pay using, for instance, Apple Pay or G Pay. 

Visa is global enabler of electronic commerce. We work with big merchants and retailers, with marketplaces, with logistic operators and providers of the content. We also support digitalization of small and medium business, so they can benefit from e-com and digital payments, expanding sales volumes and geography. In order to support acceptance development in small and medium size businesses, we introduced Visa Tap to Phone technology in Armenia last year, along with our partner banks. Visa Tap to Phone enables a business acceptance of contactless payments of any amount on an Android mobile phone or tablet in the same way their customers pay at a traditional payment terminal at the point-of-sale. Our intention is simple – we want both, consumers and businesses, to have access to simple, secure and reliable payments.

Following recent global trends, which accelerated during COVID-19 outbreak, new shopping habits that combine the physical and virtual and build on consumers' familiarity with e-commerce have been emerging. Many consumers choose a product in person, then purchase it online – or browse products in store and compare them to different options using their mobile device. Moreover, businesses that were able to adapt to digital platforms, on the other hand, thrived in general, while traditional retailers who had limited knowledge of online strategies struggled to survive.  

The way we work with data and analytics help our client-banks and merchant to build stronger customized marketing and offers to consumers. We drive global and cross-border commerce, but also part of our strategy is supporting small local and authentic brands, making them successful and available to wider audience – and e-com really helps with that. In this regard, our team launched “World of Privileges” loyalty Program in Armenia last year. The platform provides exclusive offers and promotions from partner companies for all Visa Premium cardholders, including – Visa Gold, Visa Platinum, Visa Signature and Visa Infinite.

As growth of e-commerce is accelerating, fraudulent activities in digital space are gaining momentum too. As a global leader of payment industry, Visa undertook the mission to protect the digital movement of money. We developed Visa Secure, a program that helps ensure online payments are made by the rightful owner of the Visa account. We also actively apply tokenization technology Visa Token Service as one of the most effective tools to fight fraud. Tokenization allows to secure sensitive information, such as the 16-digit account number, by replacing it with a unique digital identifier, a token. However, it is also important to remember that the first line of defense against fraudsters is be educated on how to protect and detect us from threats coming from online. 

As Visa’s vision is to be the best way to pay and be paid, for everyone everywhere, mean a huge responsibility for us that we accomplish through various strategic pillars. One of them is the development of e-commerce and solutions to protect our customers when they shop online. Our decisions to minimize frauds online, safeguard our consumers. We made major investments worldwide, such as $9 billion in fraud prevention and cybersecurity in the past five years. 

Moreover, we work closely with Central Bank of Armenia to raise financial awareness of our consumers and teach them on how to avoid and detect fraud and social engineering scams. I would mention the latest payment security campaign, we’ve conducted with CBA. 

Visa is working closely with the governments to advance digitalization of economies. We quickly adapt to changes: for example, when avoiding physical touch became a way to stop the spread of the disease, we partnered with state regulators in more than 50 countries across the world to raise contactless limits and enable customers to freely enjoy safe tap to pay transactions. 

We share data insights on digital commerce trends to help shape public strategies and decision-making. We advise on legislation that affects payment sector and implement the strictest security standards and customer authentication technologies in compliance with the national or international legislation (f. e., EU’s Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirement). I would like to highlight partnerships with USAID Georgia, Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine aiming at supporting digital transformation process, small and medium-sized businesses, and the digitization of their activities, improve financial ecosystem, extension of digital capabilities and access for citizens.

We invest our competence, technologies and knowledge to increase penetration of digital payments, helping economies, business and individuals to thrive. I think we always have the same goal with governments and regulators – building strong and inclusive cashless economy. 

What are your expectations of joining Doing Digital Forum as an innovative partner? Why is it crucial to have such platforms on the ground?

Visa brings and drives innovations globally because the digital future is what we believe in and invest in. Partnering with the Doing Digital forum serves the same reason and more. We anticipate this event to bring novelty, value, and experience on a local level to boost the process of digital transformation in Armenia. Additionally, having such a platform strengthens partnerships and facilitates the establishment of new collaborations. We believe our role, as an international company, is to step in when it comes to fostering the growth of tech, business, and financial ecosystems, and create an exciting future together with our partners.

 17:48,

YEREVAN, MARCH 31, ARMENPRESS. The Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision (Rosselkhoznadzor) asks Armenia to stop supplying dairy products to Russia from April 5, 2023, ARMENPRESS reports, the Ministry said in a press release.

"Taking into account the results of the negotiations and the unsatisfying results of the inspection, which were reported earlier, Rosselkhoznadzor applied to the Veterinary Service of Armenia with a request to suspend the certification of dairy products from all enterprises of the country to Russia from April 5, 2023," TASS quoted from the report.

As explained by the department, on , negotiations were held between the veterinary services of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Armenia, during which the results of the inspections conducted at dairy processing enterprises of Armenia from March 20 to 24, 2023 were discussed. During the meeting, the issue of the impossibility of guaranteeing the safety of dairy products for Russian consumers by the Veterinary Service of Armenia was raised.

Rosselkhoznadzor added that the possibility of resumption of supplies will be discussed additionally, taking into account the results of the works aimed at eliminating the violations discovered by the Armenian side.

As ARMENPRESS reported earlier, "Rosselkhoznadzor" reported that there is an increase in the supply of dairy products from Armenia to the Russian market. The department reported that according to preliminary information received from the Armenian side, the milk processing enterprises of Armenia use raw materials produced by the enterprises of the Islamic Republic of Iran, against which "Rosselkhoznadzor" applies restrictive measures.

In response to this statement, the Food Safety Inspection Body informed that no food safety issues threatening human life and health were found. The Inspection Body noted that dairy production, as well as the entire chain of food production, is properly controlled by the Food Safety Inspection Body, in accordance with the functions assigned by legal acts.

 18:07,

YEREVAN, MARCH 31, ARMENPRESS. Vladimir Vardanyan, Chairman of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on State-Legal Affairs, presented details of the incident that took place at the closed session of the National Assembly, ARMENPRESS reports, in a briefing with journalists, Vardanyan mentioned that on the morning of March 31, a closed working discussion was held at the initiative of the opposition.

"The session of the committee was proceeding normally, at one point the process of discussion was disturbed, the MPs started talking quite loudly and I tried to urge Artsvik Minasyan and the rest of the MPs to return to the substantial discussion. After that, in response to my legitimate demand, MP Mher Sahakyan said that I cannot raise my voice against them, and I said that I was conducting the session and continue to conduct it. He approached me (we were already standing) and attacked me without saying anything, hit me and ran away," said Vardanyan.

The Chairman of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on State-Legal Affairs emphasized that he did not take any actions against MP Mher Sahakyan and remained in the place where he was standing.

"All those who know me will prove that in the 7th and 8th convocations of the National Assembly I was always the person who tried to lead difficult situations to a compromise solution. If the normal course of the session was disturbed, we interrupted the session or tried to find solutions. This time the incident lasted for a minute and, in fact, I performed my legitimate functions. I have not taken any measures against MP Mher Sahakyan and I could not. "Mher Sahakyan approached me and hit me without saying anything," Vardanyan said.

According to Mher Sahakyan, as a result of the blow, a rather significant cut occurred in the eyebrow area. Vardanyan does not rule out that the blow was made with some kind of tool.

"It was quite a hard blow. I haven't passed the forensic examination yet, I will probably do it tomorrow," concluded Vardanyan.

 19:04,

YEREVAN, MARCH 31, ARMENPRESS. On March 31, the delegation led by the President of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France, Laurent Wauquiez visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial, accompanied by the Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia Paruyr Hovhannisyan and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Armenia to France Hasmik Tolmajyan, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute.

Harutyun Marutyan, director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, welcomed the guests and presented the history of the creation of the memorial complex. He also referred to the three khachkars erected in the Tsitsernakaberd area in memory of the Armenians who died in the massacres organized by the Azerbaijani government in the cities of Sumgait, Kirovabad (Gandzak), Baku at the end of the last century, and the stories of the five freedom fighters of the Artsakh war buried in front of Hushapat, stressing the link between what happened and the Armenian Genocide.

The members of the delegation from France laid flowers on the khachkars and graves, paying their respect to the memory of the victims of the anti-Armenian policy implemented by the Azerbaijani authorities.

Mr. Laurent Wauquiez laid a wreath at the monument commemorating the victims of the Armenian Genocide, then the guests placed flowers near the eternal fire and honored the memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide with a minute of silence.

Mr. Laurent Wauquiez stressed that the warm Armenian-French relations have a centuries-old history and that France should do everything to prevent another genocide against the Armenians.

Harutyun Marutyun thanked Mr. Wauquiez for standing by Armenia.

At the end of the visit, the French delegation was also in the Park of Remembrance, where Laurent Wauquiez watered the silver fir tree he had planted in 2019.

 19:44,

YEREVAN, MARCH 31, ARMENPRESS. On March 31, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin met with Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Russia Polad Bulbuloghlu, ARMENPRESS reports, Russian MFA informed.

The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that during the meeting, among other issues, a number of regional issues were discussed, including the prospects for the normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations according to the trilateral agreements reached between the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.

 20:42,

YEREVAN, MARCH 31, ARMENPRESS. The Embassy of France in Armenia welcomes the signing of a memorandum of cooperation between Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region and Syunik Province, which took place in Tatev monastery, ARMENPRESS reports, the French Embassy in Armenia said on its "Twitter" page.

"The French Embassy welcomes the signing of a memorandum of cooperation between the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region and the Syunik region in the Tatev monastery, aimed specifically at economic development, agriculture, professional education, healthcare and Francophone areas," the message states.

A cooperation agreement was signed between Syunik Province of Armenia and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France in the monastery complex of Tatev. The agreement envisages the development of bilateral cooperation based on the principles of friendship, justice and mutual interests.

The priorities spheres for cooperation are: access to medical care, economic development, particularly in agriculture, professional education, mainly for young people, promotion of tourism, promotion of Francophonie.

A steering committee will be created for the proper development of projects in accordance with the goals of the cooperation. The parties will create an action plan that will become part of the signed agreement.