TURMOIL OF OWNERS

A1+
13-07-2005

The company «Electricity Supply Network of Armenia» has aroused
interest in many countries. On June 30 the Russian company `United
Electric System’ announced about their desire to buy the company with
73 million USD.

Some days ago the World Bank rendered a press conference demanding to
comment on the announcements about the change of the owners of the
company.

According to the head of the Yerevan office of the World Bank Roger
Robinson the Armenian Committee Regulating Public relations officially
turned to the company `Midland Resources’ which is the owner of the
«Electricity Supply Network of Armenia» demanding to comment on the
information about the sale of the company.

`If the issue is not cleared out within days, I intend to meet the
representatives of the Armenian Government’, announced Robinson. As
for the activity of the Bank, the World Bank’s Board of Directors
today approved an Urban Heating Project (UHP) for Armenia in the
amount of US$15 million. The project will support the implementation
of the Government’s Urban Heating Strategy for multi-unit apartment
buildings and will improve heating in urban schools.

The development objective of this four-year project is to increase the
use of clean, efficient, safe and affordable heating technologies in
urban schools and multi-unit apartment buildings.

`We do hope that with the joint efforts of the Government of Armenia,
the World Bank, and other donors involved in the sector, that by the
completion of this Project the foundation for the sustainable
development of commercial heating services in Armenia will be laid’,-
said Gevorg Sargsyan, head of the World Bank team designing the
Project.

The project will also be supported by a US$ 2.9 million co-financing
Grant from the UNDP/GEF project `Improving the Energy Efficiency of
Urban Heating and Hot Water Supply in Armenia’, which is designed as
technical assistance complementing the WB project.

The Credit will be made to Armenia on standard IDA terms, including 40
years maturity and a 10-year grace period.

Since joining the World Bank in 1992 and IDA in 1993, commitments to
Armenia total approximately US$896 million for 40 operations.