Armenian News‏

Georgian FM Visits Armenia
By Ruben Meloyan

Georgia's Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze met with President Serzh
Sarkisian and his Armenian counterpart Eduard Nalbandian during a two-
day official visit to Yerevan than began on Friday.

The talks touched upon a wide range of issues of interest to the two
neighboring states, including bilateral economic relations and the
broader situation in the South Caucasus. According to the Armenian
Foreign Ministry, they are part of an `active and regular Georgian-
Armenian political dialogue' that can serve as a basis for `further
development of mutually beneficial relations.'

A ministry statement said Vashadze and Nalbandian discussed the
implementation of mostly economic agreements reached by the Armenian
and Georgian presidents during Sarkisian's October visit to Tbilisi.
It said they also spoke about Armenia's and Georgia's inclusion in
the European Union's Eastern Partnership program.

The statement said the two ministers further discussed `a number of
issues preoccupying Georgia's Armenian community.' That included the
tense situation in Georgia's Armenian-populated Javakheti region.

`There is no problem of Javakheti, there is a socioeconomic problem
in Javakheti, as well as other regions of Georgia,' Vashadze said at
an ensuing news conference with Nalbandian. He insisted that the
administration of President Mikheil Saakashvili has done a lot to
alleviate the plight of the impoverished region's population in
recent years.

`If somebody in Armenia thinks that people are better off in
[Georgia's second largest city of] Kutaisi than in Samtskhe-
Javakheti, then they are deeply deluded,' Vashadze said. `I am ready
to pay for your trip and take you [to Georgia] and show that.'

`The problem is that the integration of Georgian Armenians into
Georgia's public life is not going on at a pace desired by Georgia's
Armenian community and government,' he added.

In Nalbandian's words, the situation in Javakheti is the subject of
`sincere discussions' between Tbilisi and Yerevan. `There are no
problems that the authorities in Armenia and Georgia can not solve
jointly,' he said.

Vashadze denied in that regard any political motives behind the
recent controversial arrest of two Armenian activists in the regional
capital Akhaltsikhe on espionage charges. `Their rights are
protected,' he said. `Lawyers are working for them.'

Nalbandian said the Armenian government is monitoring the high-
profile case and has already received relevant explanations from the
Georgian side. `The matter is being investigated and as Mr. Vashadze
said, things will probably clear up after the investigation is over,'
he said.

RUSSIAN INVESTMENTS IN ARMENIA'S ECONOMY INCREASED FOURFOLD LAST YEAR
Gita Elibekyan
"Radiolur"
20.02.2009 17:00

Last year the Russian investments in Armenian economy increased
fourfold, Director General of the Armenian Development Agency Robert
Harutyunyan said during the roundtable discussion featuring the
delegation of the Russia's Sverdlovsk region and Armenian businessmen.

Robert Harutyunyan informed that Russia alone invested $567 million
out of the total of $853 million in Armenian economy.

"The investments were mostly targeted at the spheres of energy, gas,
water supply and transport. Last year Armenia's commodity turnover
reached 1.6 billion drams, registering a 24% raise as compared to 2007.

Robert Harutyunyan informed the Russian delegation that the Armenian
government has taken steps to soften the possible influence of the
global financial-economic crisis on the country's economy.

As for the cooperation with Sverdlovsk region, it first of all,
develops in the field of agriculture. However, the sides agreed
that it's necessary to solve the problem of transportation to ensure
further deepening of ties.

Participants of the roundtable decided to continue the discussions
within the framework of the "Bridge 2009" international economic
forum in Tsakhkadzor on 23 February.

Tycoon Defends Purchase Of Embattled Firm
By Astghik Bedevian

Ruben Hayrapetian, a prominent pro-government businessman, strongly
defended on Friday his decision to buy a company that was effectively
confiscated by the Armenian government from an entrepreneur
supporting the opposition.

Hayrapetian was the sole participant in a government-administered
auction for the Bjni mineral water plant. It was put up for sale late
last year after its refusal to pay 4.2 billion drams ($13.7 million)
in government fines imposed on it for alleged tax evasion.
Hayrapetian offered to pay 4.44 billion drams for the company based
in Charentsavan, a small town 40 kilometers north of Yerevan, just
hours before the end of the bidding on Monday.

`I bought Bjni so that people don't become jobless,' he told a news
conference.

The company employed more than 400 people before it was raided by tax
and police officials and forced to suspend its operations in October.
According to Hayrapetian, it will be reopened later this month or
early next.

Bjni was until now owned by Khachatur Sukiasian, another millionaire
businessman holding a parliament seat. Sukiasian supported opposition
leader and former President Levon Ter-Petrosian in the February 2008
presidential election and went into hiding to escape arrest following
the disputed vote. He is wanted by the authorities for his part in
what they call an opposition plot to seize power.

The fugitive tycoon has strongly denied the coup charges through his
family members and lawyers. They insist that tax authorities'
crackdown on Bjni and other businesses making up Sukiasian's SIL
Concern group, launched in late 2007, was also politically motivated.

Hayrapetian, who also heads the Football Federation of Armenia and is
a senior member of the ruling Republican Party, said he has no moral
qualms about acquiring a company wrested from a fellow `oligarch.' He
argued that Sukiasian and his extended family have no moral right to
question his integrity because they made their fortune in the early
1990s thanks to their close ties with the administration of then
President Ter-Petrosian.

`Let them look back and see whether [the way in which] they bought or
took away things was moral,' he raged. `When they admit that their
actions were immoral, I will do the same.'

`You all know how these SIL Concern owners acquired their assets,'
Hayrapetian told journalists. `Just look back at [the period] from
1992 to 1998 and you will see with what methods their assets,
including the Bjni plant, were bought.'

BRAIN DRAIN FROM ARMENIA CONTINUES
Panorama.am
18:01 20/02/2009

"Today very little money is disposed from the state budget to
the science, I have been stressing it for many times," said in a
press conference the President of the National Academy of Sciences,
Academician Radik Martirosyan.

He says that the scientists participate in many international projects
to earn money. In 2008 the scientists of the Academy participated in
52 international projects, said R. Martirosyan.

"20% of the international grants are spent to buy to equipments,
and the rest forms the salaries," he said and added that not all the
scientists have opportunities to be involved into those projects.

Regarding the "brain drain" the Academician said that in 1990
the Academy had more than 7000 employees and 60% of them were
scientists. Today this figured is halved, but not necessarily all
of them left the country. But Martirosyan has also mentioned that
"brain drain" has been and will continue in the future.
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