''IF I WERE BUSINESSMEN I WOULD INVEST MONEY IN ARMENIA''

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russia is the first partner of Armenia both by the volume of investments and turnover. Nevertheless, both Moscow and Yerevan think that the paces of economic cooperation are lower than those in the political and military spheres. The economic presence of Russia in fact, has started in Armenia only several years ago, when the big Russian companies started to invest money in the industry of Armenia. The ''Russian aluminum'', RAO EES, ''Gasprom'', ''Siberia'' Air Company, are successfully operating in Armenia. Focusing on the examples of the profitable investment of Russian capital, the organizers of the business-forum (the Ministry of Economic Development) presented to the potential partners concrete investment projects.

The Minister of Economic Development Karen Tshmarityan does not hide that the Armenia attracts the Russian investors first of all because of the non-expensive man power. This is why, according to him, the cooperation in regulation of flows of labor power is very important. The Minister of Labor and Social Security Alexander Pochinok suggested in this context to think about the elaboration of a concrete scheme of cooperation. As to him, the Russian economy may provide with job about 70 million people. Now the Ministry is elaborating a project of a program which supposes the possibility of attraction of foreign labor force with providing the workers with pension.

According to Tshmarityan, the most attractive fields for investments at present are the energy sphere and the chemical industry. However, in Yerevan they think that soon the big business will notice the potential of the Armenian scientists engaged in applied sciences. The Russian capital is already being interested with the production and services of Armenian companies working in the sphere of high technologies. The term of the monopoly on the mobile communication, coming to end, opens new perspectives for the Russian companies working in the sphere of telecommunications. ''In Armenia there really is a favorable investment field. If I were a businessman, I would invest money here,'' Ilya Klebanov told the journalists. He confirmed the readiness of the government to restart the 5 Armenian enterprises passed to the ownership of Russia in accordance with the agreement ''Property in exchange of debt'' (on May 14 he State Duma ratified this agreement). Their exploitation will become much more effective in case if the issue of the railway communication via Abkhazia is solved. ''We hope that it will be possible to solve this issue with Georgians,'' Klebanov said. ''Two years ago, when they were speaking about the exploitation of the Abkhazian railway communication, this seemed unreal, but now it is rather realistic,’’ the co-chairman of the Armenian-Russian intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation, Minister of Defense Serzh Sarkisyan said.

Within the frames of the forum, the session of the working groups on cooperation in the industrial, scientific, financial-banking and trade spheres took place. It is supposed that the Armenian-Russian business-forum will be held regularly – at least once a year.