AZG Armenian Daily #171, 08/09/2006
Education
500 MORE PCS FROM ARA ABRAHAMIAN FOR SCHOOLS OF
ARMENIA AND ARTSAKH
10 schools in Yerevan among others in Armenia and
Artsakh will soon have new rooms equipped with modern
PCs. Thanks to the financial assistance of the World
Armenian Congress and the Union of Armenians of
Russia, each of the 10 schools in the boroughs of
Arabakir, Ajapnyak, Davitashen, Kanaker-Zeytun,
Shengavit and Erebuni will receive no less than 5 PCs
with 17-inch monitors and a printer.
At the meeting between Onik Vatian, head of Education
Department of Yerevan Municipality, and headmasters of
the above schools, vice-chairman of WAC Vladimir
Aghayan said that 500 PCs with all necessary
accessories will arrive in Armenia on September 8 and
9 within the framework of “Pan-Armenian Care for
Equipping Schools of Armenia and Artsakh with PCs”
project of the WAC and UAR.
During the days of Armenia-Diaspora 2d forum in 2005
the project was carried out only partially but the WAC
and UAR in the person of Ara Abrahamian has already
presented the Armenian and Artsakhi schools 5 thousand
500 PCs.
In Vladimir Aghayan’s words, the WAC and UAR take
schools seriously considering them a strategic link in
the chain. The classrooms will be fully equipped in
the 10 Yerevan schools by September 16-17 when a big
delegation will arrive in Armenia on the sidelines of
“Days of the World Armenian Congress and Union of
Armenians of Russia in Armenia and Artsakh-2006.” Mr.
Aghayan also said that they plan to organize free of
charge classes for those teachers who are going to
lead the PC rooms.
On his part Onik Vatian thanked on behalf of all
schools for this program. Mr. Vatian thinks that the
PCs are a real gift for the schools especially when
the organization and person behind the 5.500 PCs keeps
silent.
The headmasters thanked for the gift asking to pass
their words to Ara Abrahamian – “the great Armenian
for his mission for the welfare of the nation and his
great contribution to schools.”
By Aghavni Harutyunian

AZG Armenian Daily #171, 08/09/2006
Economy
ARMENIA LEADER IN CIS AS A COUNTRY WITH TROUBLE-FREE CONDITIONS FOR
RUNNING A BUSINESS
It’s becoming easier to run a business in all over the world. This was
the conclusion of “Doing Business in 2007” report by the World Bank and
the International Financial Corporation published in Washington. As
a result of 213 reforms in 112 countries during 2005-2006, troubles
connected with implementation of legislative acts and financial
expenses have reduced. This is true for the whole world. What is
the situation in the CIS?
In this sphere neighboring Georgia with a number of reforms behind is
leading the field as well as is the first on the list of 10 countries
where reforms were carried out in doing business. Georgia has improved
its rating in 6 of 10 spheres. Armenia is also among the seriously
reformed states with 4 improvements.
“Doing Business in 2007” includes indices of 175 countries on degree
of simplicity in running a business. Georgia’s advancement in this
category by 75 points is rather impressive. Armenia is the first with
among the CIS states being located on 34th place. Georgia follows
on 37, then comes Kazakhstan on 62. Russia is on the 96th place
after which come Ukraine on 128, Belarus on 129, Tajikistan on 133
and Uzbekistan on 147.
Georgia has reduced the amount of needed capital for opening a new
organization from 2000 lari to 200 lari (85 USD). In this period of
time 20 percent more new companies have emerged.
With regard to Armenia, among the factors making doing a business
easier is simultaneous registration of new companies in tax service and
social fund that reduces day of registration to one. Requirements for
starting a business in the sphere of construction have been trimmed
down as well as processes of deeding over the right on assets were
made easier.
By Ara Martirosian
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

FEW ARMENIAN WOMEN MARRY
Lragir.am
08 Sept 06
Member of Parliament Shavarsh Kocharyan told news reporters September
8 that there is a serious demographic problem in Armenia. According
to the member of parliament, he has been to Europe for a number of
times, and statistics about the Armenian women is not reassuring. For
instance, Shavarsh Kocharyan says if in the European countries there
is 1.5 child per woman, in Armenia there is 1.3.
Besides, he says, 60 percent of women below 50 are married, in Armenia
50 percent of women are married. Considering that non-registered
marriages in Europe are very frequent, and in Armenia they are not,
the difference becomes apparent.
The member of parliament says a multi-layer and complex action plan
should be worked out to stimulate the birth rate. However, he says,
it is important that the citizens connect their future with the
country. Whereas nothing is done in this direction, says Shavarsh
Kocharyan.

IT Month to be held in Armenia September 15 – October 15
ArmRadio.am
08.09.2006 17:15
September 15 – October 15 IT Month will be held in Armenia.
Adviser to the Prime Minister Ara Hakobyan said today that in the
framework of the month more than 10 large-scale events will be held
in the Republic.
According to Mr. Hakobyan, the aim of the Month is to demonstrate
Armenia’s potential in the IT sphere. Besides, the arrangements will
allow to determine the major directions of development of the IT
sphere in Armenia.
DigiTech 2006 exhibition will be held in the framework of the IT Month.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A1+
DASHNAKTSUTYUN DOESN’T SUPPORT SERGE SARGSYAN
[08:04 pm] 07 September, 2006
The party Dashnaktsutyun will not support Serge
Sargsyan’s candidacy. Hrant Margaryan, member of
Dashnaktsutyun Bureau, informed the journalists about
their above-mentioned decision today.
“We shall support neither him nor anyone else,” said
Mr. Margaryan in answer to the question whether there
are people among their party who are going to support
Serge Sargsyan.
Hrant Margaryan also announced that Dashnaktsutyun is
going to participate in the coming elections on its
own. He denied the rumors about discord inside their
party. “If there was any discord I would openly say
about it I deem it a normal thing.” Like many
political figures, Hrant Margaryan also thinks that
criminality has become indispensable part of political
life.
“Our country needs political will power to control
many phenomena, to combat corruption and to organize
fair and just elections, and only Dashnaktsutyun party
is capable of doing these,” Mr. Margaryan announced
self-confidently and added that they only need
mandates to implement their work.
“We have already got people’s mandate of confidence
and we act within the boundaries of that mandate. Our
role is really great and significant. This time we
want to have a complete mandate in order to have a
complete role. I assume that people must give our
party their votes of confidence if they want to
eradicate corruption, to administer justice and to
hold just and fair elections in the country,” added
Hrant Margaryan
By the way, today just before the beginning of the
Supreme meeting the presentees showed their respect
towards dead Shahen Hovasapyan by one-minute silence.
Vahan Hovhannesyan, RA NA deputy and Shahen
Hovasapyan’s friend, shared his opinion on the crime
and qualified it as a crime against state and
statehood. He voiced hope that the law enforcing
bodies will do their utmost to reveal the real
criminals and to punish them.

Armenian nuclear power plant’s authorized capital to increase by 2m dollars
Arminfo
7 Sep 06
Yerevan, 7 September: The Armenian government has instructed the
Ministry of Energy to increase the authorized capital of the Armenian
Nuclear Power Station closed-type joint-stock company by 854.8m drams
(2.1m dollars), the government said in a press release today.
The press release says that the authorized capital of the Nuclear Power
Station should be increased through a rise in the nominal price of the
shares of the station. These funds will be used to expand the dry depot
of used nuclear fuel on the territory of the Nuclear Power Station.
It will be remembered that construction and assembly work to expand
the depot at the Armenian Nuclear Power Station will be carried out
by the French company Cogema Logistics. A contract was signed with
the company on 30 September 2005. Twenty-four additional modules will
be build at the Nuclear Power Station, which will make it possible
to keep 1,344 fuel units. According to the schedule, it is planned
to complete all work by September 2007.

DRIVERS ARE SELFISH
A1+
[05:41 pm] 07 September, 2006
The survey conducted by the NGO “Armenian Medical Association” has
revealed that passengers are rather passive while protecting their
rights in public transportation. The point is that they keep silent
when drivers smoke and poison their health.
By the way, when any passenger ventures to make a remark to the driver
the latter only answers, “This is my car, and I can do whatever I
want.” This testifies to the high level of egoism.
“Most passengers avoid having conflicts with drivers and that’s why
they remain indifferent,” says Vahe Ter-Minasyan who is responsible
for the program implementation.
Parunak Zerveyan, president of the association, says that this
phenomenon is determined by the public unawareness and they have
tried to correct this mistake by anti-smoking campaign. The campaign
was held through 4 radio stations and 12000 fleeting. By the way,
there were radio stations that refused to join their campaign and
broadcast anti-smoking advertisements.
The polling revealed that out of 10 drivers 8 are smokers and 33,
8 percent of passengers are aware that the law forbids smoking in
vehicles but they are passive in protecting their rights.
“Three-month program aimed at raising public awareness and monitoring
on the “RA anti-smoking legislation exertion lasted from May 15 to
August 15. Two hundred drivers and a thousand passengers participated
in the polling.
On the whole, five million AMD was spent on the program. Mr. Zerveyan
maintains that the program is aimed at the implementation of the
current law which requires legislative acts and means of punishment.
“Some of our citizens even suggested execution,” added Mr. Zerveyan
jokingly.
By the way, we asked a few questions to our citizens after the
meeting. It turned out that few passengers were aware of the
above-mentioned campaign though they were glad that there is such a
program. As for the drivers, they confessed that sometimes they smoke
while driving but they always keep the windows of the car open and
try “not to let the smoke in so as not to poison the passengers.” We
don’t imagine how they manage to do it.

OMBUDSMAN DEMANDS TO PUNISH THE GUILTY PEOPLE
A1+
[06:10 pm] 07 September, 2006
Armen Haroutyunyan, the RA Human Rights Protector, condemns the recent
violence against a press representative. He made an announcement in
this connection.
The announcement says, “The recent assaults on journalists and the
intervention into their activity put the reputation of our country
into question and are real threats for freedom of expression and full
provision of rights on information availability”
The violence against Hovhannes Galajyan, editor-in-chief of the
newspaper “Iravounq” is a condemning action directed to press freedom.
The Human Rights Protector calls on the law enforcing bodies to be
more prudent and consistent and voices hope that any violence against
journalists will be hence revealed and punished by the authorities.

GOVERNMENT DECIDES TO EXTRACT MORE WATER FROM SEVAN
Panorama.am
17:31 07/09/06
The government session decided today to extract more water from
Sevan. The information released by the government says that the
government made an amendment in its earlier decision setting 170
million liters as the norm for extracting water from Sevan instead
of previous 150 million liters. The decision takes into consideration
the draught of this year and sharp rise in temperature. /Panorama.am/
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MARGARYAN SAYS RPA AND ARF HAVE A LOT IN COMMON
Panorama.am
18:51 07/09/06
Andranik Margaryan, chairman of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA)
and the prime minister of Armenia, welcomed today the opening session
of the Supreme Body of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF)
saying RPA has passed a long way with ARF. “The formation of the
political coalition in 2003 is a bright proof of it,” Margaryan says.
RPA chairman indicated that the two parties have a lot of similarities
of dispositions. Even in case of difference of opinions, it was
possible to come up with a common decision, he said. The prime minister
also said there are many unresolved challenges in the country and
the two parties should cooperate and support each other.
Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanyan said, in his turn, that the meeting
is held at the doors of 15th anniversary of the Armenian statehood
and 2007 parliamentary elections. “We managed to create a strong
base in the course of 15 years which can support a stronger and
more prosperous statehood,” the head of FM said. He also said “our
society needs internal exactingness for effective fight against evil,
corruption and criminalism.”/Panorama.am/