Friday, 26 October 2007
October 25 - the second day of RA Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan
's visit to France - began with a meeting with chairman of administrative board of Alcatel Serge Churuk. The main theme of the meeting was Alcatel's activity in Armenia. Appreciative of the growing involvement of the company in Armenia's economy, the parties have agreed that as a leader in the sphere of information technologies, Alcatel can and should take a greater share in various sectors of our country's economy. Serge Churuk said that he was going to be more goal-oriented in the matters of realization of investments, promotion of new initiatives and programs in Armenia.In the afternoon, Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan met with his French counterpart Francois Fillon. The Prime Minister of France said to be pleased with the friendly Armenian-French relations, which he characterized as "brilliant," especially in the political, cultural spheres, as well as in the field of local self-government. He noted that the economic relationship between our countries had improved considerably nevertheless they still fell short of the level of exchanges in other spheres. He further noticed that today
's France is a country with strong economic potentialities, pursuing active policies in the innovative sector and can play an essential role in the matter of economic development of Armenia.Having agreed with his counterpart, Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan mentioned the dynamics of bilateral economic relations and the ever-growing volume of French equity in Armenia and cited the success of several large companies (Alcatel, Veolia, Rubbish, Pernaud Ricard, Credit Agricole, Air France etc. He said to be looking forward to French Prime Minister
's support in the stimulation of new French companies' entry into Armenia. He noted in particular the possibility of realization of new joint programs in the spheres of information technologies, insurance, banking, public health services, pharmaceutics and energy. The Prime Minister of France promised to make the necessary arrangements for the concerned authorities to start considering the mutually beneficial proposals formulated by the Prime minister of Armenia.The two prime ministers have also spoken about the stability in the South Caucasian region, the OSCE Minsk group-mediated Karabakh peace process, the upcoming presidential elections in Armenia and other issues of mutual interest.
During the meeting, the Prime Minister of Armenia invited his French counterpart to pay a visit to Armenia. The invitation was accepted with gratitude.
On the same day, Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan met with Patrick Devedjian, the secretary-general of the ruling political party
