Friday, 1 December 2006
On a visit to the Russian Federation for attendance of the official closing of the celebrations of Armenia's Year in Russia, RA Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan today has met with his Russian counterpart, Head of Government Mikhail Fradkov.
At the beginning of the meeting, RA Prime Minister expressed appreciation of the warm reception enjoyed by the Armenian delegation. With reference to the celebrations of Armenia's Year in Russia, Mr. Andranik Margaryan stressed the high level of organization and added that the political dialog, economic and humanitarian cooperation had allowed to deepen and expand bilateral relations consistently. According to the Prime Minister, the actions held in the frameworks of the Year had a broad coverage to include guest-performances of the best creative companies of Armenia, exhibitions, meetings and business forums for the business circles of the two countries, student conferences and so on. The Prime Minister appreciated that fact that the geography of events had extended well beyond Moscow and Saint Petersburg to comprise Rostov, Astrakhan, Samara, Sverdlovsk krais and other regions of the Russian Federation. Andranik Margaryan emphasized the active contribution of heads of regional administrations to the organizers, as well as the population's warm reception.
The head of GoA spoke with satisfaction about the activation of humanitarian cooperation of the past two years as promoted by the celebrations of Armenia's Year in Russia and Russia's Year in Armenia respectively.
The Prime Minister noted that trade and economic interaction had considerably increased over the current year. In the first 9 months of 2006, trade turnover grew to USD303.7 million against the USD 352.9 million, recorded in 2005. According to Andranik Margaryan, Russian investments into the Armenian economy had augmented, too. Systemic modernization was completed in "Armenal" and was expected to affect positively the growth of trade turnover. The Prime Minister said to be appreciative of the activities of the intergovernmental commission, too. The speedy refurbishment and commissioning of those enterprises transferred to the Russian side under the "Assets for Debt" agreement will be another incentive for the strengthening of economic ties and involvement of new operators therein.
During the meeting, RA Prime Minister has noted that apart from the traditional fields of bilateral cooperation, such as power generation, metallurgy and chemical industry, new strategic areas had appeared to include information technologies, SMEs, tourism, as well as more active collaboration in the banking sector. According to the head of GoA, Armenian entrepreneurs took interest in the establishment of close ties of cooperation with Russian agricultural machinery producing companies. The parties have also touched upon the problems arising during the transit of the agricultural produce exported from Armenia across the territory of Georgia.
Andranik Margaryan has noted that the Armenian-Russian economic partnership should be underpinned by direct ties between the marzes of Armenia and the Russian krais. Active efforts are underway to streamline the interregional cooperation. He stressed that reliable and efficient economic communications had to be established in search of a new qualitative level of economic cooperation and for the realization of bilateral and regional economic programs.
During the meeting with Mr. Fradkov, RA Prime Minister has also referred to the closure of Upper Lars border-point by noting that the Armenian economic operators had suffered serious losses due to the blockage of the border-point. Considering that it had been closed for an indefinite period of time and used to function on a seasonal basis, the Prime Minister pointed out to the possibility and necessity of commissioning Novorossyisk-Poti-Novorossyisk ferry-line for motor vehicles. Andranik Margaryan called his counterpart's attention to the need of re-commissioning Kavkaz-Poti-Kavkaz railway ferry-line by mentioning that the Armenian side was interested in the speedy construction of the second shift of the ferry complex in the port of Kavkaz, which was supposed to facilitate the re-commissioning of the ferry-line.
At the meeting with the head of Russian government, the Armenian side has expressed concern over the recently multiplied incidences of violence with regard to our compatriots in Russia. It was stressed that while not deliberately targeting the Armenians, nevertheless they bore a pronounced ethnic character. The ruling out of ethnic intolerance was said to be a common concern for both sides as it was fraught with adverse consequences and loss of the positive spiritual potential built up by former generations.
At the close of the meeting, RA Prime Minister has thanked once again his Russian counterpart for the constructive dialog and expressed conviction that contacts like this were a necessity as they allowed discussing in all detail the problems at hand in search of mechanisms for their solution.
Later this evening, Andranik Margaryan will pay a visit to the All-Russian Exhibition Center in Moscow.
On December 2, the government delegation of Armenia is scheduled to leave for Saint Petersburg to attend the official closing ceremony of the Year of Armenia in the Russian Federation.
