INTERNATIONAL BANKING CONFERENCE IN YEREVAN TO DEAL WITH TRADE FINANCING
by Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency
March 27, 2006 Monday 11:12 PM EST
Armenia’s trade financing matters of current importance are to
be discussed at an international banking conference opening here
on Tuesday.
The conference, which has been organised by the European Bank
for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Armeconombank,
the republic’s leading commercial bank, one quarter of the assets
of which belongs to the EBRD, is held within the framework of the
EBRD-devised trade assistance programme for the banks of Central and
Eastern Europe and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries.
The Programme is aimed at stepping up intra-regional and international
trade through encouragement of the activities of West European banks.
The EBRD, in particulr, assumes political and payment risks in favour
of Armenian companies that transact export-import operations.
The Conference is to be addressed by Central Bank executives and
officials of the Armenian government and various international
financial organisations.
The delegates of the banks of Russia, Austria, Belarus, Britain,
Germany, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, the Netherlands, the United
Arab Emirates, Turkey, and Ukraine are to share their experience. The
guests are to get acquainted with the peculiarities of banking, tax
and customs legislation of the republic and its practical applications.
The forum has already attracted the attention of numerous companies
which operate in Armenia and are interested in the crediting of
their commercial activities. They operate in most diverse sectors of
the the economy ranging from engineering and communications to the
production of canned food and toys. A practical training seminar is
to be conducted for them with the participation of the experts of
the EBRD and other organisations.
The Armeconombank, which is the legal successor to the Armenian
republican bank of the Zhilsotsbank of the USSR (housing and social
development bank), was the republic’s first one to get reorganised
from the state-run bank into a joint-stock one. At present, it has
39,000 clients who are catered for in 40 branches of the bank.
On the strength of last year’s results, Armenia’s Central Bank
and the Ministry of Finance referred to the Armeconombank as the
republican government’s best agent in the management of the national
domestic debt.