JUNE 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Arsen Julfalakian and Artur Aleksanian, two Olympic medal winning Armenian wrestlers, have pulled out of the European Games in Baku because they said that it would be biased towards their Azerbaijani competitors, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)
JUNE 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – New York-based ContourGlobal bought Armenia’s largest hydro-electric complex for $250m, media reported, the first major investment by a Western company in the Armenian energy sector. Russian companies dominate Armenia’s power generation sector.
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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)
MAY 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s deputy economy minister, Garegin Melkonyan, said that although Armenia was a member of the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union, it wanted a deal with the EU that was as close as possible to an Association Agreement.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
DILIJAN/Armenia, JUNE 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Once best known as a spa resort in the north-eastern mountains of Armenia, for the past couple of years Dilijan has also been a base for the Central Bank.
As part of a government plan to redistribute wealth around the country, the Central Bank moved 100 employees in the Central Bank’s research department and their families to this quiet, gentle mountain town of around 20,000 people.
“Central Bank’s move to Dilijan has had multiple effects,” the Armenian Central Bank chairman, Artur Javadyan, told the Bulletin on a trip to Dilijan.
“Our staff’s first concern was whether their children would have appropriate education and other facilities for permanent residence. This encouraged the Central Bank to create new and high quality infrastructures.”
It’s an ambitious project for the Central Bank to tackle. It had to build new infrastructure for its employees, such as schools, sports centres and apartment blocks, investments which have had positive drip-down effects on the local population, their shops and businesses.
And it appears to be paying off. The Central Bank employees who have moved to Dilijan, which lies in a national park, said they were enjoying the experience.
“It is great in here,” one said as birdsong floated across the air. “After a hard working day we go to play football, have some beer and rest.”
Nearby, a supermarket has experienced a boost in demand for products generated by the workers.
And Armenia’s newest financial hub — even if it is a small, embryonic one — is also a magnet for tourists interested in nature. Surrounded by forested mountains, Dilijan is famous for its natural springs which have attracted tourists from around the world.
“We’re so happy to see our city developing, where you can see the contrast of old and new,” said a Dilijan resident.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
June 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Electricity prices in Armenia will increase, media quoted Robert Nazaryan, chairman of the Public Services Regulatory Commission, as saying, ending months of indecision. This will be the third electricity price rise in two years and triggered street protests.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
JUNE 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s economic picture this year is emerging. Its GDP increased by 2.2% in the first quarter of the year compared with 3.1% in January-March 2014. A slight drop, but not as bad as it could be.
On a trip to the city of Artashat, outside Yerevan, PM Hovik Abrahamyan said that he was pleased with the how the data was emerging.
“We have 2.3% (economic activity) growth for the first 4 months which is usually passive,” he said.
“The programs that we are implementing and the laws we are adopting can become the basis by which we will surely have more than 2.3% economic growth. We will do everything to reach 4.1% GD growth tar- get,” he said.
Like the rest of the region, the impact of falling oil prices on Russia’s economy twinned with sanctions have rippled wider and hit the South Caucasus and also Central Asia.
Mr Abrahamyan said Armenia may be able to reach GDP growth of 4.1% this year because of a number of projects in the pipeline. He highlighted increased agriculture activity of 6.6% in the first quarter of the year and a redress on the remittances’ reduction expected from Russia.
The IMF and the World Bank have said that remittances will drop by up to 40%. The Armenian Central Bank said that the figure is likely to be nearer 25% or 30%. And this is really the crux. If remittances fall sharply, GDP will too.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
JUNE 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – More and more ethnic Armenian refuges from Syria are fleeing to Armenia, Hranush Hakobyan, minister for diaspora, said. Thousands of Armenians had lived in Syria. Many fled after the start of a civil war. Ms Hakobyan said there were now 13,000 in Armenia.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
MAY 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia confirmed it will send a team to the inaugural European Games in Baku next month. Azerbaijan and Armenia are officially at war over the disputed region of Nagorno- Karabakh, now controlled by Armenia-backed forces. Some athletes wanted to boycott the event.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian PM Hovik Abrahamyan said the IMF and EBRD’s forecast of negative economic growth this year were wrong and that he still expected the economy to grow slightly.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s government said it would privatise the national post office group Haypost, potentially setting up one of the biggest sales of state assets this year.
One of the overriding reasons behind the sale is to modernise Haypost and its 900 branches around the country, Arman Sahakyan, head of the statement, said.
“With the help of investments we expect to modernize physical infrastructures, to restore around 250 post offices, to purchase mobile post vehicles, which will serve all Armenian communities including those 250 communities where there are no post offices at the moment. Transportation means will also be renovated, post-boxes will be placed at all 750,000 registered addresses of Armenia,” media quoted Mr Sahakyan as saying.
The Armenian government is under increased pressure to rebuff a worsening economic outlook.
Haypost, which is in desperate need of modernisation has been a prime candidate to attract an investor to buy it from the government and update the service.
The Armenian state wholly owns Haypost, although in 2006 it handed the management of the company over to a company registered in the Netherlands but owned by Argentinean-Armenian businessman Eduardo Eurnekian. It’s unclear from reports if Mr Eurnekian will be involved in the privatisation.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
