Armenpress

ARMENIAN-GEORGIAN ASSOCIATION TO MEET IN BATUMI IN MAY

YEREVAN, APRIL 21, ARMENPRESS: Vladimir Badalian,
an Armenian parliament member and a cochairman of
Armenian-Georgian and Armenian-Ajarian Associations,
told Armenpress an Armenian-Georgian-Ajarian business
forum will be held in Ajaria’s capital Batumi in late
May, to be followed by the meeting of the
Armenian-Georgian intergovernmental commission on
cooperation in Tbilisi.
Badalian said the Associations have been active for
two years already and have managed to remain balanced
organizations despite some tension in bilateral
relationships. Badalian said the major goal of the
Armenian-Ajarian Association is to expand the network
of resorts on the Black Sea coast of Georgia’s
autonomous region of Ajaria that could be available to
Armenia’s middle class. He said last year some 12,000
Armenians spent their summer vacations in Ajaria. He
said if the government of Georgia repairs roads
leading to the region this number may double.
Now it takes 16 hours for mini-buses to travel from
Yerevan to Batumi, but a massive repair of roads
launched by the government of Georgia in Javakheti is
expected to cut the trip to a 6 hour journey.