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.
It here – population census 2011 results are published, The State Statistical service (STS) published these data during the holidays, when people were busy with celebrations. This was a result of five-year hard work of the government. People had forgotten about the census when the findings were published. In was in 2009 when the government made a decision to organize population census.
The topic of “construction balloon” will stay an important topic of political discussions in Armenia for a long time. The debate between Robert Kocharyan and Tigran Sargsyan does not come to an end, but instead it is becoming even more active. To note, the debate started after the Prime-Minister discussed economic issues in his New Year address and said that during the previous government there was a “construction balloon” which had to blast and result in negative consequences for the economy of the country. In fact this message was addressed to the second president Robert Kocharyan, who reacted very aggressively, and even said words that could insult the PM.
Since the economic downturn in 2008 and the fall off in gold and other commodity prices in the last two years it has become a challenge to attract investments in any business, especially in the mining sector. Mining projects require large capital investments and are often high risk, considering the market volatility and initial funding needed for exploration that does not always guarantee positive results.
According to the freshest results of the Armenian National Statistics Service the index of economic activeness of Armenia was 3.1% for January-November. But the start of the year was pretty good and in the beginning of the year the same index was 8%. The optimism of the government has decreased. This year the government planned 6,2% economic growth but the president assigned the government to reach 7%. But according to the current picture we only have 4.1%.
I strongly believe that nobody, including Russia, has or will ever stop us from fighting our own corruption problem; bringing order inside our own house is our problem, thus we should not put the blame on anybody or try to look for reasons why it does not happen. It is us that are guilty in all this. If we are not satisfied with the current social and economic situation, it is the fault of the society, political elite and our decision makers.
The Armenian energy and natural resources minister Armen Movsisyan said concerning Armenia’s debt of $155 million that the debt was accumulated since 2011. The minister’s cloudy explanation gives a clue that the price of gas was increased in 2011 but ArmRusGazArd company continued paying the old price ($180).