Friday, 19 November 2004
Today a discussion of the achievements and failures of the Armenian national teams which had participated in the 28th Olympic games of Athens was held at RA Prime Minister's Office. In attendance were Mr. Hovik Abrahamyan, RA Minister for Territorial Administration and Coordination of Infrastructure Operations and chairman of the Olympic teams preparation committee, Mr. Ishkhan Zakaryan, Head of the State Committee for Physical Development and Sports under RA Government and President of the Armenian Olympic Committee (deputy chairman of the organizing committee), Mr. Pavel Safaryan, RA Deputy Minister of Finance and Economy and member of the organizing committee, Mrs. Hranush Hacobyan, chairperson of NA standing committee on science, education and youth affairs, MP Manouk Gasparyan, trainers and coaches and the heads of relevant departments of the Office of Government.
An in-depth analysis was made of the organizational and financial aspects of state policies implemented through the Sports Committee, discussed were various matters concerning the Sports Committee - National Federations - AOC relationship and the needed interface between them, the existing shortcomings, as well as issues bearing on the application of performing mechanisms to carry out effective public policies in this field.
The details of an expert analysis carried out prior to the meeting were presented by Mr. Ishkhan Zakaryan who noted that two of the 3-phased discussions in the national federations had been completed to be summarized in a final joint discussion where the eventual changes to federation compositions would be reviewed. He advised that the president of the Armenian Heavy Athletics Federation and the coach of the national team had already resigned. According to Mr. Ishkhan Zakaryan, a special meeting of the AOC was due to be held next Monday where the new composition of the Olympic Committee would be made public and the outcome of the final meeting of the federations would be discussed. Another meeting would be held in early 2005 to discuss and approve the programs for the next stage (2005-2008).
During the discussion it was noted that, notwithstanding the increased level of public funding earmarked for the development of sports in our country year after year, the considerable amount of work carried out in this area, the special focus on children
