ARMENIAN NEWS

ARMENIA'S POPULATION 3,223.7 THS ON JULY 1, 2007
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Aug 1 2007

YEREVAN, August 1. /ARKA/. By July 1, 2007, Armenia's population had
reached 3,223.7ths. The RA Statistical Service reports that Armenia's
urban population had reached 2,066ths people and rural population
1,157.7ths people.

Armenia's capital has the largest population - 1,105ths. The Shirak
and Armavir region have a population of 280,000 each. The population
of the Vaiots Dzor region is 55,800 people.

Citizens of employable age made 65.8% of Armenia's population (16-62
years for males, 16-59 years for females). Citizens younger than
16 constitute 21.7% of Armenia's population, and citizens over the
employable age 12.5%.

According to the official information, 521 old people and children
under aged 0-15 are per 1,000 people of employable age.

Scientists Urge Government To Keep Boosting Vital Armenian Lake
By Ruzanna Stepanian

Armenian scientists have expressed serious concern about a government
proposal to stop raising the water level of Lake Sevan, warning of a
`irreversible' negative consequences for Armenia's ecosystem.

The Armenian government was due to discuss a relevant decision drafted
by the Ministry of Urban Development at its weekly meeting on Thursday.
However, the government removed it from the agenda at the last minute,
in an apparent response to an outcry made by the National Academy of
Sciences. A spokeswoman said Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian told
ministers that the matter must undergo a more thorough examination by
experts and scientists before being decided by his cabinet.

Sevan occupies much of the northeastern Gegharkunik province, serving as
the landlocked country's main water reservoir. It had shrunk
substantially throughout the 1960s and 1970s due to heavy use of its
waters for irrigation and power generation. The process resumed during
the severe energy crisis of the early 1990s when Armenia had to increase
its reliance on a cascade of hydro-electric power plants on the river
Hrazdan flowing out of the mountainous lake.

It was not until 2002 that the government unveiled and embarked on the
implementation of a Sevan rescue plan which was enshrined in a special
law adopted by parliament. The government committed itself to gradually
increasing Sevan's level by several meters by reducing power generation
at the Hrazdan cascade and building a second mountain tunnel supplying
water to the lake from another river.

The tunnel went into service in summer 2002. According to the Armenian
Ministry of Environment, Sevan's level has since increased by about two
meters. It was supposed to rise by another three meters in the coming
years to put Sevan's surface at 1,908 meters above the sea level.

Some top government officials now seem keen to stop the process on the
grounds that the swelling lake is threatening to submerge houses and
other structures along its slanting coastline. Many of them are
expensive villas, hotels and entertainment spots built in recent years
despite a government ban on any construction below the 1,908-meter
mark.

A special commission of the National Academy of Sciences dealing with
Sevan-related ecological issues is strongly opposed to any halt in the
lake's enlargement. Its chairman, Fadey Sargsian, wrote to the Armenian
premier on Wednesday, warning that failure to raise the lake to the
planned level planned could result in its `irreversible degradation.' He
pointed to a government decision whereby everything built along the
lake's perimeter below the 1,908-meter mark is subject to demolition.

Sargsian's deputy, Rafael Hovannisian, said the government is seriously
considering the controversial proposal because of personal interests.
`It is obvious that that is being done to preserve restaurants and
villas,' he told RFE/RL. `It is a disgrace. The state ignores the
problem of a whole lake for the sake of several [wealthy] individuals.'

The Environment Ministry's position on the issue remains unclear. The
ministry declined a comment on Thursday, referring all inquiries to the
Ministry of Urban Development.

Aliev, Kocharian `May Meet Again This Year'
By Ruben Meloyan

The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan may meet again this fall in yet
another attempt to reach a framework peace agreement on
Nagorno-Karabakh, a senior U.S. negotiator reportedly said in Baku on
Friday.

Azerbaijani media quoted Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew
Bryza as saying that the meeting could take place in October or
November.

Bryza, who is also the U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, was
reported to have made the statement after talks with Azerbaijani Foreign
Minister Elmar Mammadyarov. He was received by President Ilham Aliev on
Thursday.

The U.S. official arrived in Baku from Moscow where he discussed with
the Minsk Group's Russian and French co-chairs the latest impasse in
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks. Visiting Armenia on Monday, he
indicated that the conflicting parties are unlikely to cut unpopular
peace deals before the start of presidential elections due in both
Armenia and Azerbaijan next year.

According to the Azerbaijani news agency Trend, Bryza sounded more
optimistic on that score in Baku, saying that the mediators should use
the limited time remaining before the presidential races to again try to
get the parties to sort out their remaining differences on the Minsk
Group's existing peace proposals.

The mediators hoped that Aliev and his Armenian counterpart will
eliminate those differences at their most recent meeting held in the
Russian city of Saint Petersburg in June. However, the two leaders
failed to make further progress in the talks, all but dashing hopes for
a near-term solution to the Karabakh conflict.


Western Banks Unveil `Historic' Lending Scheme For Armenia
By Anna Saghabalian

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and a
leading U.S. financial services group unveiled on Friday a joint lending
program for small and medium-sized Armenian companies seeking cheap
credit.

The EBRD and the Citigroup financial conglomerate said they will each
lend $6 million to one of Armenia's largest commercial banks,
ACBA-Credit Agricole, that will manage the scheme. Under the terms of an
appropriate agreement signed in Yerevan by the three sides, ACBA-Credit
Agricole will in turn use the money to extend loans to expanding small
and medium-sized firms.

According to the ACBA chairman, Stepan Gishian, the maximum amount of a
single loan to be provided under the scheme will be set at $300,000. He
could not specify the cost of such borrowing, saying only that it will
be below his bank's current lending rates.

ACBA, in which the French bank Credit Agricole is the principal
shareholder, currently makes loans repayable in up to five years, with
interest rates varying from 16 to 22 percent. With inflation in Armenia
remaining in single digits and the national currency increasingly
strong, such rates are hardly affordable for many small firms.

Officials present at the signing ceremony, emphasized the fact that it
is the first time that an Armenian bank borrows a substantial amount of
cash from a Western bank on a commercial basis. `We are talking about
purely market-based relations,' Gishian said, pointing out that similar
lending programs have until now been implemented in Armenia only by
non-commercial development institutions like the EBRD and the World
Bank.

Michael Weinstein, head of the EBRD office in Yerevan, described the
deal as a `historic' event for Armenia. He said the London-based lending
agency helped to negotiate it as part of its growing presence in the
country. `We now pay a lot of attention to the Caucasus region and
Armenia in particular,' he said. `We hope that our involvement in
Armenia will continue and deepen.'

The EBRD has spent some $180 million on loans to and equity purchases in
various Armenian companies ever since it opened an office in Yerevan in
the mid-1990s. A large part of the sum has reached the country in the
past few years.