Saturday, 29 April 2017
PM Receives Best Program-Submitted Community Leaders from Ararat and Lori Marzes
Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan held a consultation to discuss best five-year development programs as submitted by five communities from Ararat Marz and 4 communities from Lori Marz of Armenia.
The community leaders presented various programs of entrepreneurial and social character aimed at creating slaughterhouses, fruit dryers, a garbage processing plant, a refrigerating plant, livestock farms, light industry enterprises, tourism, asphalting activities, major repairs of schools and kindergartens, as well as the construction of a house of culture. A substantive discussion unfolded around the programs.
Among a number of other programs, the head of Vedi community presented a program for constructing a garbage sorting station in the city, noting that it is estimated at 100 million drams. The private investor has already made an investment of 25 million drams, with the Government expected to provide credit funds in the amount of 75 million drams. Taking into account the effectiveness of the program, the Prime Minister noted that the Government is ready to help them attract credit funds.
Ararat community presented a project for construction of a mobile slaughterhouse, which is estimated at 130 million drams. Karen Karapetyan noted that a similar program had been submitted by Vedi community from the same region.
The Head of Government pointed to the need for estimating the optimal number of similar slaughterhouses. “It is necessary to make an inventory of programs. We are set to develop the institute of slaughterhouses, and therefore we will create the necessary environment to provide the market. But can we now say that we know how many slaughterhouses are needed in Ararat Marz? You meed to take into account the operational capacity, the number of animals, the market and so on,” the Prime Minister said.
Governor of Ararat Marz Araik Grigoryan noted that such a calculation has already been carried out: the mobile slaughterhouse will get orders from all communities of the region. According to the Governor, if in addition to this program another program for the slaughterhouse is submitted, then it will be proposed to invest in another area, since the mobile slaughterhouse program will completely solve the problem. It was also noted that the Ministry of Agriculture had developed a map of the optimal location of slaughterhouses. The Prime Minister instructed those responsible to review the program and submit a proposal.
The Mayor Alaverdi of Lori Marz presented several projects in the spheres of tourism, agriculture and light industry. In particular, attention was called to the program for establishment of a clothing factory. 600 jobs are due to be created at the first stage, with 1600 jobs planned for the second stage. The Mayor of Alaverdi advised that the community is ready to allocate the necessary buildings to the investor with its infrastructures.
Lori Marz Governor Artur Nalbandyan added that the program is under discussion, but the investor is ready to implement it only after a while, therefore the investment program package may be presented to other investors.
According to the Governor, Alaverdi is an industrial city, but jobs are available mostly for men. According to Nalbandian, in Soviet era, the clothing factory operated in three shifts, that is, there will be no problems with the labor force today.
Touching upon this project, Karen Karapetyan urged to discuss it in detail with the companies that carry out activities in the field of light industry. “The Government is ready to subsidize loan funds under the project. We will support the community in every possible way,” the Prime Minister stressed.
Under a program of the establishment of a pedigree farm in Archut community, it was proposed to import 30 animals and give them to local residents in order to increase the production of livestock in the community. The program is estimated at 50 million drams, the payback period is 10 years.
Prime Minister Karapetyan said the Government considers this program impractical and suggested involving the private sector to implement a program for the establishment of a farm. “We are going to finance such programs as may be co-financed by private investors. In addition, risks and responsibilities are not visible in the scheme of the submitted program. Therefore, this program is unacceptable to us,” the Prime Minister said.
The Head of Government instructed the heads of the responsible agencies to study the aforementioned project in all detail and provide appropriate assistance depending on their effectiveness.
