GYUMRI, DECEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS:

Till 1988 earthquake Gyumri was a big industrial center. The food, light industry, machine-building factories of Gyumri enjoyed great respect in the soviet republics. Armenpress news agency spoke with head of the Shirak Governor’s Office’s Department of Development Programs and Analytics Mariam Gyodakyan.

- Mrs. Gyodakyan, what was the situation of industry before the earthquake and what have we lost as a result of it?

- Of course, if we are talking about the earthquake, we must compare what we had before and what has been left after. Before the earthquake we had a planned economy, Shirak province had 56 industrial enterprises, the majority of which were big-sized enterprises, few were branches of Yerevan enterprises. After the earthquake all our main means vanished, there were enterprises equalized with land and nothing was build instead. The investments made in the others and the restoration process remained unfinished.

- Why was it impossible to restore the factories that did not collide?

- When the privatization process started everything changed: our republic as well as former soviet republics passed from planned economy to market relations and naturally companies and particularly property owners became decision-makers. The bad thing is that some companies acquired as a result of privatization, implemented non-programmed privatization, as a result they vanished too.

- What do we have today, after the years of earthquake? Have we managed to restore what we have lost?

- Currently the industrial situation in our province cannot be compared with early 90s. If that time we faced the absence of roads, energy crisis, absence of communication, unsatisfactory market analysis, now we have left it behind. As of today, we have 110 companies producing outlet in the province. Branches of companies included. The most important circumstance is that the factories are not working for stores. If there is a demand, product is being produced if not it is being changed.

- Which is the prior branch of province’s industry?

- As compared with the previous time, the structure of industrial enterprises has also changed. If that time we had 56% light industry and the volume of our industrial product made 35% in the republic, we were in leading positions, now we do not have that role. From year to year new companies are being created, some of them manage to work, some not. As of the moment, the light industry situation is not bad in our province but it enters another branch called processing industry which also includes metal processing, food industry, furniture making, etc.

- Has the production volume increased this year?

- If last year, before the exploitation of Akhuryan sugar factory we had 15 billion AMD products this year we have 34 billion. I am convinced that each unit of enterprise that is being exploited on the account of big investments, efforts and work brings growth of production volumes. Recently new textile factory opened in Amasia where today 150 people are working, together with the increase of volume of work, the number of workers is increasing. If previously as compared with other provinces we were the last, now taking into consideration the volume of our industrial products we are on higher places.

As of today, not the metal-processing branch is developing, but IT which demands more investments both financial and intellectual. With the decision of the Armenian government a techno-park will be established in Gyumri and this process is being implemented by the Gyumri’s economic development foundation which has created four small enterprises and implements certain programs. It is being done with the state budget means.

- Are there companies which may not only be leaders in the republic but export high-quality products?

- Yes, there are. Many of them are not only leading in the republic but have managed to become known outside of the country as well.