YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Avinyan held a meeting on February 14 with Gaelle Assayag, head of the Southern Caucus office of the French Development Agency.

Ambassador of France to Armenia Jonathan Lacote was also in attendance, Avinyan’s office said.

Avinyan noted that the economic cooperation between Armenia and France continues to deepen and expand and the French Development Agency’s work in Armenia is additionally boosting mutually beneficial partnership. Assayag said the agency is ready to support the Armenian government in realizing its development goals.

The Deputy PM noted that the inclusive growth model is the basis of the government’s action plan, which implies also the distribution of additional resources for the development of infrastructures, education and healthcare, which will enable to achieve huge progress in the long-term perspective.

The sides pointed out the development of governance system capacity, infrastructures, agriculture, energy efficiency, tourism and urban development as important fields of bilateral cooperation.

The construction of the Vedi reservoir was discussed. It is being built by a 75 million Euro loan provided by the French Development Agency and co-financing of the government.

A 10 million Euro worth grant program on developing irrigation agriculture in Ararat and Armavir was also discussed. The project is under discussion between the agency and the government.

 The French Ambassador said that recently French companies have increased interest for Armenia, particularly executives of Dassault Systèmes and THALES are expected to pay a visit to the country.

Scientific and academic cooperation was also discussed, namely issues related to constructing a new building of the French University of Armenia, further development of the French School, and creating a supercomputer center in cooperation of the Armenian Academy of Sciences and several universities of Toulouse.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan