Mediamax news agency, Yerevan, in Russian
10 Mar 04

Armenian leader urges nationwide fight against corruption

YEREVAN

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan expressed his regret today that
“the fight against corruption in our country is not nationwide”, the
Armenian president said at a meeting with Yerevan State University
students today, according to a Mediamax correspondent.

Kocharyan said that for an efficient fight against corruption, it is
necessary to regulate all the functions of the state. “For example,
in Armenia, four years ago, it was impossible to have a commercial
company registered without a bribe. Moreover, it took about a month.
Now it takes only two days to have a company registered and nobody
can dare to demand a bribe,” the Armenian president said.

Robert Kocharyan cited the energy system as another example, he said
that “it used to be one of the most corrupt spheres in Armenia”. “The
privatization of the Armenian grids has led to a considerable drop in
the level of corruption in this sector,” the president said.

“We have the necessary political will that enables us to reduce the
volume of corruption every year. The elimination of corruption
demands daily laborious efforts, and this is not a problem that can
be resolved very quickly by chanting big slogans,” Kocharyan said.