Armenian president favours equal business opportunities

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
13 Apr 05

[Presenter] Armenian President Robert Kocharyan today held a working
meeting with the newly-elected members of the board of the union of
industrialists and entrepreneurs.

They informed the Armenian president about problems raised at a recent
congress of the union and said that they expect assistance in solving
them. The meeting discussed issues concerning the creation of
conditions for competition, assistance to the export of products and
other issues.

The Armenian president pointed out that measures are being taken to
eliminate favouritism and ensure equal competition in business. The
president also said that in this connection, the presidential
administration’s supervisory service has conducted checks among
officials of tax and customs structures to find out whether they
monitor the business of people under their supervision. The service
has also prepared a list of 300 malicious tax defaulters.

[Kocharyan] I regard you as my colleagues and we must clearly discuss
all issues related to the economic policy of our country. It is
important to trust each other in solving these problems. I am sure
that if there is no ideal situation in this sphere, we will not be
able to resolve these problems. But life has shown that we are able to
stand up to competition in this region. This is our best advantage. No
oil resources can substitute it.