Friday, 10 October 2008
The RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan-led delegation's working visit started with a meeting held at the Office of Millenium Challenge Corporation CEO, Ambassador John Danilovich.
Ambassador Danilovich appreciated the cooperation with the Republic of Armenia and expressed confidence that the cooperation with the Armenian side would keep on developing in future. In turn, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan touched upon some issues of mutual concern.
The Prime Minister further presented the highlights of the anti-corruption program set forth by the Armenian government, the reforms underway in tax and customs administrations and spoke of the possibility of getting technical assistance to that effect.
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Then the Prime Minister left for the White House to meet with US Vice President Dick Cheney. During the meeting, the interlocutors spoke about the bilateral relations development prospects and exchanged views on regional security issues. They referred to the losses incurred by Armenia's economy as a result of the South-Ossetian conflict, the Armenian-Turkish relations, President Gul's visit to Armenia, the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, as well as the implementation of MCC programs and the global financial crisis.
The Armenian Prime Minister reiterated that the Karabakh conflict should be settled through talks held in the frame of the OSCE Minsk Group. Attempts to take the issue outside the Minsk Group framework were said to be unacceptable. In the meantime, the Prime Minister stressed Armenia's readiness to continue negotiating based on the Madrid principles. In this respect Tigran Sargsyan said that dangerous are those statements highlighting only Azerbaijan's territorial integrity to the detriment of other universally accepted principles as they may lead to inaccurate ideas and expectations.
With reference to the negative impact of Georgia-South Ossetia conflict, Armenia's losses were estimated at about USD 670 MN in terms of tax arrears and deferred investments.
The parties also discussed the outcome of Turkish President Gul's visit to Armenia. As assured by Tigran Sargsyan, the visit can favorably affect the settlement of bilateral relationship, nevertheless President Gul's and Azeri Foreign Minister's recent statements voiced from the UN rostrum may give rise to some concerns. According to the Prime Minister, both at home and abroad Armenia's constructive stance is often perceived as an evidence of weakness amidst ongoing talks while it should be viewed as a political move towards compromise.
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Several issues have been discussed during the meeting with World Bank Vice President Shigeo Katzu, including the building of a new NPP in Armenia, the construction of a southward railway line, the creation of a pan-Armenian bank, the formation of strategic reserves, the impediments to commodity turnover in Armenia and so on.
The interlocutors also discussed questions regarding air transportations, domestic pension reform and the financial crisis in Russia especially as seen from the perspective of its possible impact on Armenia.
A separate agenda item was the possibility of providing our country with a credit line for funding small and medium-size enterprises in Armenia.
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Next, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan met with World Bank Managing Director Ms. Ngozi Oconjo-Yveala. The World Bank Managing Director expressed admiration at Armenia's determination and consistency in implementing World Bank programs. The expertise available from Armenian counterparts during reform implementation was said to be quite invaluable.
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan spoke about the existing problems and future action rather than about the current achievements as along with new programs, new challenges are facing Armenia. For instance, the government-launched tax and customs reforms imply serious challenges. Based on her own experience, Ms. Ngozi Oconjo-Yveala agreed that said reforms may hurt all stakeholders, although this does not rule them out from the process of building a civil society supported by democracy. She indicated that the tax and customs reforms have to be completed in order to minimize corruption risks and provide for social integration.
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The day was closed with an interview with US Trade Representative, Ambassador Susan Schwab. The Prime Minister asked the Ambassador about such areas as might be covered by interstate agreements so as the US-Armenia trade relationship could be raised to a new qualitative level. Ms. Schwab mentioned the Office of US Trade Representative has conducted an economic study in Armenia and is prepared to commence discussions with a view to identifying possibilities for new business arrangements and implementing various projects. Ambassador Schwab suggested creating a task force and hold expert discussions in the United States. Considering that several US-based companies have recently carried out sizeable investments in our country, Tigran Sargsyan pointed to information technologies as a prospective area for cooperation.
