13:23, 8 January 2024

YEREVAN, JANUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. Numerous legal acts must either be adopted or laws must be amended following the ratification of the Rome Statute, Justice Minister Grigor Minasyan has said.

“We’ve studied the experience of various countries, particularly Georgia has a similar legislation, an entirely separate law. But we’ve also studied the experience of four-five leading countries. And the first step is the development of new legislation and work with international experts,” Minasyan said at a press conference.

Asked on the methods of applying the Rome Statute to hold Azerbaijan accountable for war crimes, the minister said: ‘The process is as follows. There are prosecutorial and investigative instruments and our investigators, by studying the crimes, gathering the information, also have the opportunity to involve international prosecutors and law enforcement officials, who, upon arriving in Armenia and studying the paperwork, become part of those proceedings. In this case, Armenia is not alone in the investigative processes of the war crimes and involves international bodies conducting proceedings.”

 13:32, 8 January 2024

YEREVAN, JANUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. Secretary of the Security Council Armen Grigoryan on January 8 met with United States Senior Advisor for Caucasus Negotiations, the United States Co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Louis Bono.

Grigoryan and Bono discussed the normalization process of the Armenian-Azerbaijani relations and the latest negotiations, as well as the course of implementation of agreements that were achieved during the talks, Grigoryan’s office said in a readout.

Grigoryan reiterated Armenia’s commitment to establish lasting and comprehensive peace in the region.

 14:40, 8 January 2024

YEREVAN, JANUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. Iran has clear positions regarding the situation in the South Caucasus region and transit corridors, Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani has said in response to a statement from Turkey on the so-called Zangezur Corridor.

“Iran has clear positions regarding the situation in the South Caucasus region and transit corridors, he noted. We are making a lot of efforts to establish peace, stability, and security in the regional countries. We emphasize that developing transit cooperation cannot be a basis for geopolitical changes and violation of the territorial integrity and national sovereignty of countries,” IRNA quoted Kanaani as saying at a press briefing.

The Turkish Minister of Transport and Infrastructures Abulkadir Uraloglu has said that Ankara expects to complete what he described as the “Zangezur Corridor” project by 2029.

 15:30, 8 January 2024

YEREVAN, JANUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. FIFA President Gianni Infantino has congratulated Armen Melikbekyan on his re-election as President of the Football Federation of Armenia.

"Dear President, please accept my warmest greetings and sincerest congratulations for your re-election as President of the Football Federation of Armenia (FFA).
I seize also this opportunity to thank you for all your efforts, your work and your important contribution to the development of our sport and the promotion of its values in Armenia. Sending you and your team my best wishes for this new mandate and every success for all the challenges that lie ahead, I look forward, dear President, to continuing to work with you for the growth and prosperity of football in Armenia in the years to come,” Infantino said in the addressed to Melikbekyan.

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 16:21, 8 January 2024

YEREVAN, JANUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian government plans to build a government district near Yerevan, Justice Minister Grigor Minasyan has said.

He said that all government ministries will be housed at that new district which will be located in a nearby province.

Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatryan is in charge of developing the project.

“Initially there was an idea to house all agencies and buildings under the justice ministry in one place, but then a decision was made to expand the plan and build a government district. All government ministries will be brought out of downtown Yerevan and relocated in a province near Yerevan. As a result, the overloading issue in downtown Yerevan will be resolved and the huge buildings now used by officials will be used for business, rentals and sales, which will generate profit,” the minister said.

 16:24, 8 January 2024

YEREVAN, JANUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s economic growth in 2023 will stand around 8,3-8,5%, Economy Minister Vahan Kerobyan has said.

“We assume that economic growth in 2023 will be around 8,3-8,5%,” Kerobyan said at a press conference.

GDP per capita is projected to be $8,280.

In 2017, Armenia was 122^nd among 196 countries according to GDP per capita; Armenia improved its position to 112 in 2020, and according to IMF projections the country will be 86^th with 2023 data.

 16:30, 8 January 2024

YEREVAN, JANUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan has said that he expects poverty rate to drop significantly with 2023 data.

He said that the poverty reduction is a highly important indicator for the government.

“In 2022, when we were living in an environment of high inflation and high economic growth, our international partners were warning us that high inflation could lead to up to 40% growth in poverty. But thanks to the outrunning actions taken by our government, not only didn’t we let poverty level to grow, but we also secured a certain reduction. Poverty dropped from 26,5 percent to 24,8%. However, for 2023, we again have high economic growth, but lower inflation, which allows us to hope that we will have significant reduction in the poverty rate as of 2023,” the Economy Minister said.

 17:01, 8 January 2024

YEREVAN, JANUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. For the first time ever, the United States has become one of the biggest trade partners of Armenia, Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan has said at a press conference summarizing 2023.

He said that Russia remained Armenia’s biggest trade partner in 2023. 

“Our biggest trade partner is still Russia, although its share in the total trade turnover has somewhat dropped. Next come the United Arab Emirates, China, Georgia and the United States, which is in this list for the first time,” Kerobyan said.

He said that Armenia continues to work towards a more diversified foreign trade turnover.

 17:06, 8 January 2024

YEREVAN, JANUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. 2,300,000 tourists visited Armenia in 2023, a tourism official has said.

Sisian Boghossian, the Head of the Tourism Committee under the Ministry of Economy, said that most of the 2,3 million tourists came from Russia.

“In 2023 we had two million three hundred thousand tourists, nearly a thirty percent growth compared to 2019 and nearly a thirty-nine percent growth compared to 2022,” she said.

50% of the 2,3 million came from Russia, followed by Georgia and Iran respectively. Diaspora Armenians from the United States are next.

“We have many tourists from India now who arrive from Dubai. Germany and France are still important target markets for us, and China is in the top ten countries,” Boghossian added.

 17:19, 8 January 2024

YEREVAN, 8 JANUARY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 8 January, USD exchange rate up by 0.01 drams to 405.23 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 1.18 drams to 443.44 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.01 drams to 4.46 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 2.12 drams to 514.89 drams.

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

Gold price up by 219.53 drams to 26791.04 drams. Silver price up by 0.26 drams to 299.39 drams.