In Armenia we notice a shocking phenomenon. The government calls all of its actions, even the most negative with a lofty goal – “We are doing it for the people.” It means they usually do it for the people, whose pockets are emptied for this goal.
The summarized indexes of the year are not ready yet but according to the National Statistics Service in January-September DFI in Armenia reduced by 62,1% (about three times) and amounted to 409,6 million. So we should sadly record that in 2013 the picture is dire. Under these circumstances we have two options.
Last year the Global Financial Integrity organization published a report entitled “Illegal financial outflow from developing countries 2002-2011,” which caused a lot of discussion among the Armenian government.
Perhaps everybody has seen the commercial of the new pension reform with participation of the devil and the angel. In that commercial the angel is trying to persuade the public that the more you invest in the pension fund the more the state will invest on your behalf.
The American Forbes has published a rating list entitled “Russia’s real estate kings 2014” with 30 people. This list includes local and foreign businessmen’s names who own commercial real estate properties in Russia. The classification is written in an order of incomes that the owners of real estate businesses could earn from their properties. This list does not include incomes from other businesses. Samvel Karapetyan, head of Tashir holding, is in the second place of this list with $3.8 billion (29th place). His income from rent of properties is estimated at $960 million.
After joining the Customs Union prices for many products in Armenia will increase. This will affect mainly products that are imported from non-CU countries. For most products imported from third countries the customs fee is maximum 10%, which is considered low. According to the policy of the CU, customs fees are much higher than what Armenia has now.
There is a debate going on about the potential skyrocketing of prices for certain types of products in Armenia after joining the Customs Union.
According to our information last summer the brother of the Armenian Premier Ashot Sargsyan, who resigned from the post of deputy-director of Nairit, received 42 million USD for severance from the factory during a short period of time. And this happened in the case when everybody knows how difficult the financial situation of the factory is and how the personnel of the factory didn’t get paid for many months.
The “black days” of Nairit CJST will soon end. 168-Zham has information that the factory will shut down on March 1. The recent failures of Nairit come to prove this. On these days the management of the factory is in a quite tense and worried state. We have written that the factory was making its lay-off lists for employees.
It was expected that the office of former president Robert Kocharyan would disseminate a statement in answer to energy minister Armen Movsisyan’s and education minister Armen Ashotyan’s announcements.
