Category: News

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) are hosting a conference in Yerevan today to discuss strengthening the local capital market and increasing local currency lending.

The event builds on the successful cooperation between the EBRD and CBA following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in March 2016 about reform of the local derivatives market.

CBA Deputy Governor Nerses Yeritsyan will open the seminar with a presentation about “Money Markets and Derivatives – The International and Armenian Perspectives”. Over 100 participants, including regulators and market participants as well as representatives of international financial institutions, banks and other financial institutions, are expected to attend the event.

The conference will provide an excellent opportunity to discuss recent developments in Armenia’s capital markets and consider further steps towards developing a stronger, more resilient financial infrastructure in the country.

Another important topic of the seminar will be the development of the derivatives markets and the related legal and regulatory framework.

In October 2016 the Armenian parliament passed a milestone by approving a package of laws regulating the local financial markets and also approving amendments to the law on the securities market.

The new laws were developed in close cooperation with the EBRD. Experts, funded by the EBRD Shareholder Special Fund, worked with the Central Bank of Armenia on the legal reform. The project was also coordinated with, and supported by, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA).

Mark Davis, EBRD Head of Office in Yerevan, said: “We welcome and support the authorities’ determination to implement the jointly drafted programme. We share the goal of improving the functioning of the local capital markets, increasing liquidity and streamlining regulatory processes to stimulate issuance, trading and hedging activities.”

Jacek Kubas, representing the EBRD Local Currency and Capital Markets Development team and in charge of the programme, added: “Following the successful reforms introduced by the authorities last year, the EBRD is keen to further develop the Armenian capital market, working with the central bank and other stakeholders, including to increase capacity-building among market participants about hedging tools such as foreign currency and interest-rate risk management.

The EBRD launched its Local Currency and Capital Markets Development Initiative in May 2010 to help reduce the reliance in parts of the EBRD region on foreign capital and excessive use of foreign-currency borrowing, which had emerged as key vulnerabilities during the global financial crisis.

A number of EBRD teams, including Treasury, Banking and the Office of the General Counsel, are working together with the Local Currency and Capital Markets Development team on the Initiative.

Aude Pacatte, Director, Head of Portfolio Management, EMEA, in the EBRD Treasury team, commented: “Armenia is a very important market for the EBRD. We strongly promote the development of the money market in the country and since 2014 we have been an active issuer of bonds denominated in Armenian dram.”

The EBRD is a leading institutional investor in Armenia with investments of over €1.13 billion in 157 projects in the country’s financial, infrastructure, energy and corporate sectors. Of these projects, 88 per cent are in the private sector.

A Ural vehicle of the Defense Ministry crashed into a Volkswagen Golf on Sotk-Karvachar highway.

Ten soldiers were injured as a result of the accident, two of them seriously, Defense Ministry Spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan told Tert.am.

Hovhannisyan refrained from further comments on the servicemen’s health condition, but said they will be transported to Yerevan.

Photo: DSNS

Some 20,000 people are being evacuated after a series of explosions at a massive arms depot in eastern Ukraine described by officials as sabotage, the BBC reports.

The base in Balakliya, near Kharkiv, is used to store thousands of tonnes of ammunition including missiles and artillery weapons.

Rescue teams are overseeing a huge evacuation effort for people living in the city and nearby villages.

The total area of the dump spans more than 350 hectares, the military says.

Sabotage was said to be the cause of explosions followed by fire at an ammunition depot in the city of Balakliia in Ukraine’s Kharkiv Region, causing their detonation, the country’s military prosecutor said Thursday, according to Sputnik.

“As a result of sabotage, an explosion occurred (fire broke out) at 03:02 a.m. [01:02 GMT] at several rocket and artillery weapons storage sites (125 and 152 mm tank and artillery shells), which caused the detonation of ammunition,” Anatolii Matios wrote on his Facebook page.

The Armenian “Taron-Avia” air company will start operating regular and  non-regular flights from Gyumri’s Shirak Airport from April, 2017, Press Service of the General Department of Civil Aviation of Armenia reports.

The launching of flights will contribute to the creation of new jobs and intensification of economic development and tourism in the region.

Armenia became the 60th country to endorse the international Safe Schools Declaration on March 22, 2017, the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA) said,

“We warmly congratulate Armenia for making this commitment to ensure that students and schools are better protected around the world, even during times of conflict,” said Diya Nijhowne, GCPEA director. “Armenia joins a growing community of states that recognize that more can be done, and that more must be done, so that students can study safely in their schools.”

Armenia’s endorsement means that the majority of Council of Europe member states have now endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration.

The Safe Schools Declaration is an inter-governmental political commitment that provides countries with the opportunity to express support for protecting students, teachers, schools, and universities from attack during times of armed conflict. It stresses the importance of continuing education during armed conflict.

By joining the declaration, countries pledge to restore access to education when schools are bombed, burned, and destroyed during armed conflict, and undertake to make it less likely that students, teachers, and schools will be attacked in the first place. They agree to deter such violence by promising to investigate and prosecute war crimes involving schools, and to minimize the use of schools for military purposes so they do not become targets for attack.

This latest endorsement occurs just six days before the Second International Safe Schools Conference, to be co-hosted by the Argentine ministries of foreign affairs and defense in Buenos Aires on March 28-29.

GCPEA is an inter-agency coalition formed in 2010 by organizations working in the fields of education in emergencies and conflict-affected contexts, higher education, protection, and international human rights and humanitarian law that were concerned about ongoing attacks on educational institutions, their students, and staff in countries affected by conflict and insecurity.

GCPEA is a coalition of organizations that includes: The Council for At-Risk Academics (CARA), Human Rights Watch, the Institute of International Education, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Protect Education in Insecurity and Conflict (PEIC, a program of Education Above All), Save the Children, the Scholars at Risk Network, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Armenia captain Henrikh Mkhitaryan visited the Hematology Center in Yerevan at the invitation of First Lady Rita Sargsyan.

Henrikh talked to all children at the hospital and took photos with them. He gifted signed balls, shirts and photos to the patients.

Children in turn presented him a handmade poster and performed a song for him.

Mkhitaryan said he hopes the visit will be a small contribution to the improvement of the children’s’ psychological condition and their treatment.

“Never give up, be optimistic and fight for your goals,” Henrikh advised.

“A child’s smile can really light up the world. So grateful to spend some time with these little heroes at the Hematology Center in Yerevan. Thanks for your gifts! Stay strong!” Mkhitaryan said in a Facebook post.

President Serzh Sargsyan has offered condolences to British Prime Minister Theresa May over the attack in central London that claimed the lived innocent people and left many injured.

“At this hard moment we offer our sincere condolences and support to the friendly people and government of Britain, reconfirming Armenia’s commitment to fighting any expression of violence or terrorism,” President Sargsyan said.

“I wish strength of spirit to the families of the victims to overcome this severe ordeal and speedy recovery to those injured,” Serzh Sargsyan said.

A woman has died and a police officer has been stabbed in the Houses of Parliament in London, in what police are treating as a terrorist incident, the BBC reports.

The attacker, who was shot by police officers, is reported to have earlier mowed down several pedestrians as he drove a car across Westminster Bridge.

He crashed it into railings before running into the Palace of Westminster and stabbing the officer.

A Downing Street source said Prime Minister Theresa May was safe.

Prime Minister Theresa May was seen being ushered into a silver Jaguar car as what sounded like gunfire rang out at Parliament during the incident.

MPs said they had heard three or four gunshots and staff inside Parliament were told to stay inside their offices.

Commons Leader David Lidington told MPs the “alleged assailant was shot by armed police”.

At least 33 people have been killed in an air strike on a school in a village west of the Islamic State-held Syrian city of Raqqa, a monitoring group says, the BBC reports.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the building in al-Mansoura was being used as a shelter for displaced people when it was hit on Monday night.

Both groups said the raid was carried out by the US-led coalition against IS.

There was no immediate comment from the coalition, but it has said there were 19 strikes near Raqqa on Monday, including three on what it called IS “headquarters”.