Armenia, Switzerland sign accord on reacting to emergencies

Arminfo
11 Mar 05

Yerevan, 11 March: The Armenian and Swiss governments have signed an
agreement on assistance to Armenia’s system of reacting to
emergencies. The document was signed by the head of the Armenian
government’s department for emergencies, Maj-Gen Edik Barsegyan, and
the Swiss ambassador to Armenia, Stephan Spek.

Barsegyan said that as part of the signed agreement, a programme of
assistance to Armenia’s system of reacting to emergencies will be
implemented. The purpose of the programme is to strengthen Armenia’s
decentralized rescue system. The programme envisages courses for
rescuers and firefighters and provides them with special equipment.

The programme is valued at 420,000 Swiss franks, of which 300,000
will be channelled into the acquisition of technical equipment and
120,000 into training. The money has been provided in the form of a
grant. The programme will be implemented in Armenia’s Lori and Syunik
Districts.

The first stage of the programme effectively started on 28 February.
Prior to that, research had been carried out in the aforesaid areas.
The first stage will take 12 months to complete, while the next stage
of the programme will cover other parts of the republic as well.

A total of 11 technical and humanitarian programmes totalling 6.4m
Swiss franks are currently implemented in Armenia with financial
support from Switzerland.