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04.12.2008 12:35
 The Prime Minister of Armenia, Tigran Sargsyan, received today the delegation of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
Greeting the guests, the Prime Minister expressed confidence that this visit of the EBRD delegation would serve as a new impetus for the further reinforcement and deepening of our country’s cooperation with the Bank. Tigran Sargsyan noted that despite the problems with implementation of some programs in our country, rather serious work has been done over the past years to make the cooperation more effective and raise it to a qualitatively new level. He attached special importance to the cooperation with the private sector.
Turning to the priorities of cooperation with Armenia, the Head of the Armenian Government specially pointed out the expansion of support to small and medium-sized enterprises, development of infrastructures, contribution to the formation of free economic zones next to “Zvartnots” Airport and in Gyumri, development of the capital market.
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan presented to the members of the EBRD Board of Directors the current state of Armenia’s economy and the programs for 2009, our country’s capacities to resist the negative impacts of the world financial crisis. The Prime Minister noted that when working out and implementing anti-crisis measures, the Government takes into consideration Armenia’s relative advantages and searches for ways to demonstrate our country’s strength to the world, and therefore, its attractiveness for making investments.
Members of the EBRD delegation expressed their stances and opinions on the issued discussed, spoke about the world financial and economic crises, the Bank’s activity under the conditions of economic crisis, the approaches on resisting challenges.
During the meeting reference was made to our relations with neighbor countries. The Armenian Prime minister noted, in particular, that Armenia is interested in having stable and predictable neighbors and welcomes Turkey’s bid for EU membership. According to hi, the reforms that will be implemented on that way will make Turkey more predictable and stable. Tigran Sargsyan expressed hope that the relations with Turkey will improve parallel to those reforms.
The Prime minister noted that Armenia has friendly relations with Iran and will try to preserve those in the future. Turning to the Karabakh settlement process, Tigran Sargsyan expressed hope that it will be resolved via political dialogue and in a peaceful way.
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