Wednesday, 22 September 2010
RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan’s visit to the PRC continues
In the frame of RA Prime Minister’s visit to the People’s Republic of China, early today the government delegation left Shanghai for Chengdu town of Sichuan region where the head of the Armenian government met with Sichuan Governor Jiang Jufeng.
Thanking Tigran Sargsyan for the relief provided after the devastating earthquake of 2008, the Governor presented his region’s current social and economic status. Sichuan is the ninth largest region of China for GDP performance. The region is quickly recovering with a 16.3% annual growth. Jiang Jufeng expressed hope that Sichuan’s potential will be used in cooperation programs.
In turn, Armenia was said thankful for the assistance received from the friendly people of China. Tigran Sargsyan extended congratulations on the Moon Day celebrated all over China during his stay. The Prime Minister said the object of his visit was to find ways of boosting economic cooperation so that it could keep pace with the dynamics of political interaction.
Evoking Shansi-Nairit JV as a success story, Tigran Sargsyan noted that the two sides might cooperate in other spheres as well, for example in physics, production of building materials, chemical industry, high technologies and agriculture. A package of joint projects is on the agenda which needs developing further.
The Governor said ready to consider the proposals of the Armenian side in order to promote direct enterprise-to-enterprise contacts that might help expand economic interaction between the two countries.
Following the meeting, the Prime Minister called at Sichuan Aerospace Tuoxin Basalt factory, went to Tuoxin’s economic development zone where his delegation were introduced to those solar batteries produced on the site.
RA Minister of Economy Nerses Yeritzyan said the Prime Minister has availed himself of the opportunity to propose several joint projects: construction of a basalt foundry, cooperation in the framework of Yerevan Physics Institute’s National Center, as well as a number of infrastructure and hi-tech projects, including the manufacture of solar batteries. Armenia was said endowed with the needed research capacity in want of foreign investment deemed as a launching-pad for the development of domestic technologies.
Basalt fields have been prospected for in Armenia by Chinese experts who believe that our country has important deposits of high-quality ore which can be used for the manufacture of basalt fiber.
Economic zones are supposed to trigger hosts of business opportunities by lowering startup costs, raising basic infrastructures and so on. This is an efficacious model for Armenia where we have some specific ideas about developing the provinces and smoothing the gap in household incomes nationwide.
Late on September 23, the Prime Minister-led government delegation will be back to Yerevan.
