The Armenian government approved a state support measure for fish farms operating in the Ararat and Armavir provinces.

Speaking at the Cabinet meeting, Minister of Economy Gevorg Papoyan said the program envisages providing support to 135 commercial fish farms in Ararat and Armavir provinces engaged in the cultivation of trout and sturgeon, as well as the production of fertilized fish eggs and caviar. The beneficiaries must also be registered as VAT (value-added tax) payers.

According to the minister, the support will be provided as a one-time compensation calculated as follows:

“Twenty percent of the average monthly cost of fish feed purchased during the first half of 2026. In our calculations, we have set the cost at 900 drams per kilogram. The need for this program stems from certain financial difficulties faced by fish producers as a result of restrictions on fish and fish product exports. We need to ease these difficulties so that, by reducing production costs, they can lower prices on the domestic market to some extent. At the same time, reducing costs will allow them to enter new markets,” Papoyan said.

Priority will be given to ensuring that fish feed is certified and complies with Eurasian Economic Union and EU standards.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, while highlighting the importance of the assistance, addressed existing challenges in the sector.

He noted that despite years of calls to diversify economic ties and the broad range of government tools introduced to support that goal, diversification has largely not taken place.

Citing tax data, he said fish farms pay between 2.5 billion and 3 billion drams in taxes annually, raising questions about the possible presence of a shadow economy in the sector.

The Prime Minister said the government will examine this issue.

Questions have also been raised regarding the efficient use of artesian water resources in the Ararat Valley and the quality of fish products produced in the country.

“I have spoken dozens of times about standards. To what extent does the quality of products comply with standards? At the same time, this should not be generalized: there are producers who comply, but there are also producers who do not. Let me share my personal experience. This may stir some controversy, but I have not eaten farmed fish for a very long time — for many years,” Pashinyan said.

The Prime Minister stressed that while state support is important for businesses facing difficulties, it should be aimed at developing the respective sectors.

Pashinyan said he views the current challenges related to Armenian product exports not as a crisis, but as an opportunity to develop the economy and bring products into line with modern international requirements — an opportunity that must be fully utilized.

He also expressed his administration’s readiness to discuss existing challenges directly with businesses through meetings and consultations.

A Transcaucasian brown bear cub, an endangered species listed in the Armenian Red Book, has been rescued after being found under threat of attack by a pack of stray dogs in Gegharkunik Province.

According to Armenia’s Environmental Protection and Mining Inspection Agency, its Gegharkunik Regional Department received a report at around 12:20 p.m. on July 28 from a resident of Martuni, identified as V.V., who had discovered the cub.

The approximately four-month-old bear cub was spotted near the 15th kilometer of the Martuni–Getap highway, where it was surrounded by six or seven dogs.

The resident managed to drive the dogs away, rescue the animal, and provide it with temporary shelter before authorities arrived.

An inspection found no visible injuries on the cub.

To ensure its proper care and prepare it for its eventual return to the wild, the cub was transferred the same day to the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC), where it was placed in the care of the Wildlife Rescue Center.

While China’s enormous economy and advanced mega-cities reflect many characteristics of a developed country, it is officially classified as a developing nation despite being the world’s second-largest economy.

Some parts of the country, especially rural communities in landlocked provinces, have been the focus of targeted poverty alleviation campaigns and rural revitalization projects.

The Chinese government has introduced various modernization initiatives in villages, with the primary goal of improving the standard of living in local communities.

Shuiqu, a serene mountainous village in Lintao County, Gansu Province, is a rural revitalization success story.

The village has diversified beyond traditional farming by developing tourism and cultural industries, using government coordination and market-oriented management to create jobs, increase incomes, and strengthen the local economy.

Shuiqu Village benefits from convenient transportation and a beautiful ecological environment. The village has 332 permanent households with a total population of 1,394 residents and 89.3 hectares of arable land.

In recent years, Shuiqu Village has transformed its economy by moving beyond traditional agriculture. Taking advantage of its clean environment, scenic landscapes, and locally grown fruits and vegetables, the village has combined agriculture, culture, and tourism to create new sources of income. At the center of this effort is the Longshang Bali Xiangsu brand, which aims to attract visitors while preserving the village’s rural character and improving local livelihoods.

In 2025, the village introduced a partnership model that brought together the local Communist Party branch, the village collective, cooperatives, and farmers. A town-owned agricultural investment company helped manage the project using market-oriented business practices. This approach has produced significant results. The village now welcomes more than 8,000 visitors each year, provides jobs for more than 60 local residents, and has increased villagers’ income by more than 1 million yuan (approximately USD 150,000). The village collective also earns more than 500,000 yuan annually, with tourism and related activities contributing nearly half of its revenue. Together, these initiatives have made tourism and rural industries a major driver of the village’s economic development.

So how does the project work? Instead of treating the village solely as a place for farming, local authorities transformed it into a tourism destination where visitors can experience rural life firsthand.

“Many people living in cities come here on weekends or holidays to enjoy the peaceful natural environment,” a local official told Armenpress. “The fresh air, beautiful mountain scenery, and locally grown fruits and vegetables attract many tourists.”

One of the project’s most notable features is the Shared Vegetable Garden. It allows visitors from urban areas to rent small plots of farmland, where they can grow, harvest, and enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables while experiencing rural life. Visitors can participate in farming activities themselves or simply enjoy the produce grown on their rented plots.

“People living in cities enjoy coming here because they get tired of the fast pace of urban life and want to relax and reconnect with nature,” a local guide said.

The village offers a full range of amenities designed to make it an ideal weekend getaway for nearby urban residents and tourists.

“Absolutely no chemicals are used in growing the produce here,” a local official said, pointing to the village’s fertile agricultural land.

The village grows a wide range of produce, including corn, potatoes, and tomatoes, as well as the renowned Lanzhou lily, which is widely used in both traditional Chinese medicine and Chinese cuisine.

The Lanzhou lily is China’s only edible sweet lily variety, renowned for its jade-white bulbs, lack of bitterness, and unusually long nine-year growing cycle.

It is cultivated exclusively in the high-altitude mountains surrounding Lanzhou in Gansu Province. The lily bulbs are starchy and edible and are widely used in soups, salads, and other dishes. They are also made into a popular refreshing beverage valued for their perceived health benefits. The product is highly prized across China and abroad, and local officials are seeking to expand exports.

Shuiqu Village is only one of many examples of successful development projects across Gansu Province, where the Chinese government’s push for rural modernization, industrial transformation, tourism growth, and economic development has transformed villages into new centers of opportunity.

The Armenian government has allocated AMD 650 million in funding for the construction of the Vedi Reservoir.

Speaking at the Cabinet meeting, Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Davit Khudatyan explained that the decision involves reallocating funds from the 2026 state budget and providing AMD 650 million for the Vedi Reservoir construction project, which is being implemented with the support of the Government of the Republic of France.

Around AMD 468 million of this amount will be paid to the contractor as the release of the post-completion guarantee, while AMD 117 million will be allocated for consulting services.

“This is a payment planned under the current procedures and nothing beyond that,” Khudatyan emphasized.

He said that the construction of the reservoir has been completed.

Of its total capacity of 30 million cubic meters, around 12.5 million cubic meters have already been filled. The reservoir’s filling, discharge, and emergency spillway systems have been tested.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that this is the first time in the history of the third Republic of Armenia that such an engineering water infrastructure project has been implemented.

Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatryan clarified that the reservoir is not currently being filled to full capacity, not because it is impossible, but because during the peak irrigation season the water is directed for agricultural use. In 2027, the reservoir’s water level is expected to reach 20 million cubic meters, and by the end of the same year, it is planned to reach its full capacity of 30 million cubic meters.

At the same time, the nearby road leading to the pasture area will be relocated to a higher section to ensure residents’ free movement.

The Deputy Prime Minister also reported that work has begun on the construction of three new reservoirs: Kasakh (10 million cubic meters), Lichk in Syunik Province (4 million cubic meters), and Yelpin (1 million cubic meters). The designs for these projects have already been completed.

“We have applied to the financing organization to coordinate internal procedures. Construction should begin by the end of this year. We will announce a tender to select the construction company,” Khachatryan said.

According to him, within the framework of the same cooperation program, the construction of two additional reservoirs—Artik and Astghadzor, each with a capacity of 1.5 million cubic meters—has been agreed upon with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The implementation process for the Mastara Reservoir is also being coordinated with one of its financing organizations.

Work is also underway on the construction of 12 more reservoirs. Conclusions are expected soon, after which the issue of securing investment funding will be discussed.

Armenian Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Davit Khudatyan received Hamid Ghanbari, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, on July 30, the ministry said in a statement.

The meeting focused on Armenian-Iranian cooperation in the fields of energy, transport and road construction.

Khudatyan thanked the Iranian side for the warm reception during his recent visit to Iran. He said the broad range of issues discussed in Tehran and the agreements reached would help further deepen high-level cooperation between the two countries in the near future.

The minister also noted that Iranian companies are currently involved in construction projects in Armenia to an unprecedented extent, describing this as a welcome development.

The sides also discussed progress on the construction of the third Armenia-Iran 400-kilovolt power transmission line, underscoring the project’s strategic importance.

Chairman of Armenia’s Water Committee Aramazd Ghalamkaryan has received Nariman Mohammed Sharif Al-Mulla, Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Armenia, to discuss prospects for bilateral cooperation in the water sector.

According to the Water Committee, the meeting agenda included, among other issues, a proposal for an investment project aimed at improving drinking water supply in rural communities of Armavir Province. Welcoming the ambassador, Ghalamkaryan praised the UAE’s technological capabilities and its willingness to share expertise with Armenia, noting that the Armenian side had already submitted a cooperation proposal. Ambassador Al-Mulla thanked the chairman for the meeting and said UAE specialists had reviewed the proposal and were interested in exploring opportunities for cooperation.

 Ghalamkaryan outlined Armenia’s priorities for developing its water supply system, highlighting efforts to reduce water losses, establish wastewater treatment plants, upgrade infrastructure and implement investment projects. He noted that Veolia Djur CJSC provides water services to around 80% of Armenia’s population, while communities not covered by the operator could become the focus of new cooperation and investment initiatives.

The UAE delegation presented the country’s experience in water recycling, desalination, artificial intelligence and modern irrigation technologies, placing particular emphasis on the use of advanced technological solutions in the development of wastewater treatment facilities. The sides agreed to continue expert-level contacts, strengthen information exchange and organise reciprocal visits with the aim of developing joint projects. 

Ambassador Al-Mulla also invited an Armenian delegation to participate in international events on water resources management held in the United Arab Emirates.

YEREVAN, 30 JULY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 30 July, USD exchange rate up by 0.43 drams to 366.63 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 3.71 drams to 420.67 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.0378 drams to 4.572 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 4.35 drams to 491.1 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 196 drams to 47160 drams. Silver price up by 3.44 drams to 676.54 drams.

The first preliminary hearing in the criminal case involving Catholicos Karekin II and six bishops and archbishops of the Armenian Apostolic Church has been scheduled for August 7, 2026, at 16:00, lawyer Ara Zohrabyan said.

According to him, the criminal case has been transferred to the Armavir Court of First Instance of General Jurisdiction and assigned to Judge Hakob Manukyan.

The hearing is scheduled to take place at a court in the city of Vagharshapat, where Etchmiadzin Cathedral and the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin are located.

The lawyer said Karekin II has been charged with obstructing the enforcement of a legally binding judicial act while using his official powers in his capacity as chairman of the Supreme Spiritual Council.

The charge concerns the alleged obstruction of the enforcement of a decision by the Armavir Court of First Instance of General Jurisdiction regarding the application of an interim measure to secure a claim.

According to Zohrabyan, the criminal proceedings pertain to an order issued by Catholicos Karekin II regarding the defrocking of Bishop Gevorg Saroyan, the former Primate of the Masyatsotn Diocese, which encompasses parts of Armenia’s southern Ararat Province.

The world’s largest creative competitions, including the Webby, Anthem, The Drum and Digiday awards, receive entries from agencies on every continent. At the same time, the circle of people who decide which works deserve to win is also gradually changing.

Juries that were once formed almost entirely in a handful of Western cities increasingly include professionals from countries and regions that the industry rarely paid attention to in the past. Armenian names have also begun to appear among them.

How is this change perceived from the inside? To find the answer, Armenpress spoke with international awards juror Elen Gasparyan, a young Armenian creative professional and Creative Director at Davel Creative Agency who works with international markets from Los Angeles. The conversation focused on a question that is being asked increasingly often amid these changes: does it still matter where a creative professional was born when the industry is increasingly evaluated by international juries representing a broad geography?

The winners of the Webby Awards, once described by The New York Times as the internet’s highest honor, are selected by an academy comprising leading figures in technology, media and advertising. The Anthem Awards are also organized by the same academy, while The Drum and Digiday are among the most widely read and respected names in global marketing and media.

Gasparyan is an executive member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a status granted by invitation only. The same status is held by Vint Cerf, one of the creators of the internet; Bluetooth inventor Jaap Haartsen; journalist Katie Couric; and Joanne Jang, General Manager of OpenAI Labs.

Elen, looking at the jury process from the inside, how would you assess the situation: is the global creative industry’s attention still concentrated around a handful of cities, or does it now cover a broader geography?

Less than it used to, and that is the real story of this decade. When you judge blind, and the good competitions do judge blind, you are not looking at a logo on a letterhead. You are looking at an idea. I have scored work from studios I had never heard of, in countries most people could not place on a map, and it was better than the work coming out of the famous addresses. The gatekeeping that used to happen before the work reached the jury is what is breaking down. That is the shift worth writing about.

And yet the winners’ lists are still dominated by the same large agencies. Why the gap?

Because access is not the same as visibility. A brilliant idea in a small market still has to be entered, translated, framed, sometimes just noticed. The talent is evenly distributed. The infrastructure around the talent is not. A young team in Yerevan or Tbilisi does the work, but nobody tells them the door is even open, so they never knock. I judge partly because I want to be one of the people who leaves that door open a little wider.

You are describing your own path without quite saying so. You started in banking.

I did, at eighteen, and people are always surprised by that. But banking taught me the thing that actually matters in this profession, which is how to understand a person before you try to persuade them. I spent years at HSBC in sales and marketing before I ever called myself creative. When we started the agency in 2017 I was about to give birth, we had no funding, and the market we were building in was tiny. On paper it was the wrong time and the wrong place. It taught me not to trust the phrase “wrong place.”

In 2022 you expanded the agency into the American market. Was that a verdict on Armenia, that the work had to leave home to be taken seriously?

I would push back on the word leave, because I did not leave anything. I expanded. The agency grew into new markets and I run it today from Los Angeles, but Armenia was never something I packed up and walked away from. What I wanted was to prove, to myself first, that work built in a small market could stand in the largest one. It could. We were judged against agencies many times our size, and the work still won gold. I do not tell young people that to impress them. I tell it so they stop waiting for permission.

One of your Los Angeles campaigns, “See Me, Not My Cancer,” traveled much further than the city it was made for. What did that teach you about which work crosses borders?

That the ideas which travel are the human ones, not the clever ones. That campaign, made for a cancer support community here, asked a very simple thing: look at the person before you look at the diagnosis. There was nothing culturally specific about it, which is exactly why it reached people far outside Los Angeles and why other communities asked for their own version. Cleverness is local. Dignity is universal. When I judge, that is the line I am always testing work against.

When you sit down to score an entry, what actually separates the winners?

Restraint, usually. Young creatives think a jury rewards the loudest, most decorated piece. It almost never does. What survives a room of tired judges at the end of a long day is a clear idea that respects the audience’s intelligence. I would rather see one honest thought executed simply than ten effects hiding the absence of a thought. That is true whether the entry came from a network agency or from two people with a laptop.

What do you tell the young Armenian creatives who write to you convinced the global industry is closed to them?

The same thing every time. Geography is not a ceiling. If your work is strong, the market will find you, but only if you let it be seen. Stop rehearsing the reasons you will not be taken seriously and put the work in the room. The mindset that matters is not ambition for yourself, it is the will to contribute, to make something that changes how people see each other. The market has more room in it than they have been told.

And what would you like to see change on the Armenian side of that equation?

I would like the confidence to catch up to the talent, because the talent is already there. We do not need to become someone else’s idea of a creative capital. We need to enter the room as we are and trust that it reads. Every time an Armenian name appears on one of these juries or one of these winners’ lists, the next young person from Gyumri or Vanadzor finds it a little easier to believe it is possible. That is the only reason any of this is worth talking about.

Interview by Nane Isahakyan

A working meeting chaired by Mesrop Mesropyan, Chairman of Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC), was held on July 30 with the participation of Cadastre Committee Chairman Suren Tovmasyan, Competition and Consumer Protection Commission Chairman Gegham Gevorgyan, and representatives of other interested state agencies.

According to a statement issued by the PSRC, the participants discussed the collection, coordination, integration into the national geoportal and effective management of spatial data on public infrastructure operated by companies regulated by the commission, including gas supply, water supply, electricity and electronic communications networks, as well as other infrastructure. 

The meeting also addressed interoperability between state information systems and highlighted the importance of ensuring access to up-to-date and comprehensive infrastructure data. Participants noted that a unified spatial data management system would improve the efficiency of infrastructure planning and operation, contributing to the delivery of higher-quality public services.

The participants reaffirmed their commitment to continuing cooperation on modernising and digitalising public infrastructure data management, as well as strengthening interoperability among state information systems.