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PRESS REVIEW, MARCH 17, 2009
Azg – Free trade contract between Armenia and Iran
Director of the Armenian Development Agency Robert Harutyunyan informed yesterday that soon free trade contract will be signed between Armenia and Iran the agreement over which has been reached at the January session of the Armenian-Iranian inter-governmental commission. “With the initial agreement, the taxes for the imported products will be zeroed and the Iranian market will open big opportunities for Armenia,” Harutyunyan said. By the way, says the daily, currently the products imported to Iran are taxed with a big amount, thus this opportunity may give notable authorities to the Armenian companies. Harutyunyan said the issue of cargo transportation is also being discussed.
Kapital – Has the crisis ended? PM – “Depends on what you mean by saying “crisis”
Yesterday during the visit to the Armenian province of Shirak with the request of Kapital Tigran Sargsyan presented the government’s viewpoint over the economic crisis. “Our assessments over the crisis and anti-crisis events have been clearly defined in the anti-crisis program of the government,” he said. In response to the question whether Armenia has come out of the crisis the prime minister answered: “It depends on what you mean by saying crisis. People put different content in the meaning of “crisis”. For instance in 2009 17% of growth has been registered in the IT sector. Can it be considered crisis? If we have registered 14% decline in the construction sphere, such sharp decline is crisis,” Tigran Sargsyan said. The prime minister also said that the existence of different opinions over the crisis is one of the important features of democracy and the society is able to participate in it.
Kapital – Yeritsyan responds to Tsarukyan: Debate with the participation of prime minister
Economy Minister Nerses Yeritsyan responded yesterday to the accusations voiced by the leader of Prosperous Armenia party Gagik Tsarukyan. “We advise Gagik Tsarukyan to give assessments to ministers of the Prosperous Armenia party and to their work, and the assessment of my work will be given by the RA President and Prime Minister,” the Economy Minister said in a statement released by the ministry. The daily reminds that on March 15 asked by reporters to comment on the statement of the minister that the economic crisis in Armenia has ended Gagik Tsarukyan said: “He (Nerses Yeritsyan) was not in place, and he is neither aware of economy nor the economic situation in the country”. The daily says in response to the statment of the ministry spokesman for Gagik Tsarukyan said: “If the Prosperous Armenia party had such minister like Nerses Yeritsyan he would have submitted resignation application long time ago. One must not live in virtual reality.” The daily noted that Gagik Tsarukyan’s criticism was not directed only toward the minister but in general to policy of the government, and particularly to the review of the tax policy. Kapital says that in connection with this prime minister said that flaws exist in all the ministries. “We must not throw mutual accusations, our power must be the unity. If there are flaws in this or that ministry, our coalition partners must help to eliminate them. We must not violate the ethical rules,” the prime minister said.