Russia-Armenia interregional ties “important reserve” – minister
By Tigran Liloyan

ITAR-TASS News Agency
October 13, 2004 Wednesday

YEREVAN, October 13 — Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin,
who co-chairs the Russian-Armenian economic cooperation commission,
said the development of inter-regional ties between the two countries
is an important reserve of bilateral relations.

Levitin was speaking at an international economic forum, organized
by the World Armenian Congress and the Union of Armenians of Russia.

Regional cooperation agreements have been signed by Moscow,
St.Petersburg, and the Volgograd, Samara, and Sverdlovsk regions,
he said.

Commenting on Armenia’s state debt to Russia, the minister said the
two countries found a solution of this problem last year.

The handover of companies as payment of the state debt creates
preconditions for boosting trade and economic interaction between
the two states.

He also emphasized that the Russian-Armenian trade and economic
cooperation is developed in accordance with the principle of equality,
while meeting each party’s national interests and to their mutual
advantage.

Levitin noted positive examples of cooperation, including such joint
ventures as Armenal, in which the Russian Aluminum company invested
more than 40 million dollars, the Armavia airline, in which Russia’s
Sibir holds a 70-percent sake and the Orbita plant which is wholly
owned by Rosaviaspetskomplex.

“We have cooperation plans in the fields of power generation,
including nuclear power generation, and information technologies
where resources and experience of Russian communications operators
on Armenia’s market will be used, as well as in the sphere of space
exploration and science,” the minister said.

He said Russia’s commercial banks begin to display interest in
servicing Russian companies which operate in Armenia, and setting up
new joint ventures.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress