March 23, 2010 - 15:31 AMT
Enhanced food security in the focus of Armenian authorities
Enhanced food security is in the focus of the Armenian authorities, said Gagik Minasyan, chairman of the RA NA Standing Committee on Financial, Credit and Budgetary Affairs.

"The authorities will pay a particular attention to the preservation and renovation of food reserves, special attention will be paid to promoting the local agriculture. Along with the economic growth appropriate mechanisms to stimulate local production need to be developed," he told a news conference in Yerevan on Tuesday. 

Mr. Minasyan reminded, that the state subsidizes agriculture (30 000 drams / per 1 hectare of land).

He also informed that regional security problems were discussed at the 34th session of the Economic, Commercial, Technological and Environmental Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) in Chisinau on March 17. "The meeting specified the definition of the poverty limits, which in Armenia exceeded 3 per cent, and this is a new challenge for the Armenian government," he said. 

On 25 June 1992, the Heads of State and Government of eleven countries signed in Istanbul the Summit Declaration and the Bosporus Statement giving birth to the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC). It came into existence as a model of multilateral political and economic initiative aimed at fostering interaction and harmony among the Member States, as well as to ensure peace, stability and prosperity encouraging friendly and good-neighborly relations in the Black Sea region. The BSEC Headquarters - the Permanent International Secretariat of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC PERMIS) - was established in March 1994 in Istanbul. With the entry into force of its Charter on 1 May 1999, BSEC acquired international legal identity and was transformed into a full-fledged regional economic organization: Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation. With the accession of Serbia (then Serbia and Montenegro) in April 2004, the Organization's Member States increased to twelve.