Los Angeles Daily News
Oct 1 2005

State trade office to open in Armenia
By Alex Dobuzinskis, Staff Writer

California’s trade office in Armenia will open Monday, thanks to the
$75,000 raised by local members of the Armenian community to create
trade partnerships between the Golden State and the former Soviet
republic.
The office will be in temporary quarters in Yerevan, Armenia’s
capital, in a government building there. An English-speaking Armenian
was appointed to run the office, which will link importers and
exporters between California and the landlocked nation east of Turkey
and north of Iran.

Because the money was raised privately, the state was able to open
the office in Armenia even though California’s other foreign trade
offices were closed recently because of state budget woes. That could
be a model for the state if it opens other foreign trade offices,
officials said.

“The Armenian officials that I met with are very excited about it
because they recognize that one of the ways as a developing country
they’re going to progress is to count on the expertise and the
products that would come from a place like California,” said Sen.
Jack Scott, D-Pasadena, who was in Armenia from Sept. 19-23.

Officials expect that the office will facilitate in the export of
information technology and health products going into Armenia and
help Armenian businesses export foodstuffs and other products to
California.

There is nearly $50 million in trade between Armenia and the United
States, most of it with California, said Berdj Karapetian, chairman
of the Glendale-based Foundation for Economic Development, which
helped create the trade office.

“There are quite a few individual business owners, midsize business
owners – not the multimillion dollar ones or the small mom-and-pop
entities – midsize businesses that are looking for business
opportunities in Armenia that are developing, but they’re not sure
the exact ways to go about it,” said Karapetian, who works in
marketing.

The office will facilitate that work that they need, he said.

No public money has gone into creating the trade office, and there
could be a need for additional fundraising in the future to keep the
office operating.

“I’d like to see it grow,” said Annette Vartanian, executive director
of the Glendale-based Armenian American Chamber of Commerce.
“Obviously, it’s going to start out small, but I’d like to see in the
next couple of years for the office to expand and to see a team of
people working.”

The office is overseen by the California Business, Transportation &
Housing Agency.