UN WORLD FOOD PROGRAM TO CONTINUE COOPERATION WITH ARMENIAN GOVT

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
August 2, 2006 Wednesday 03:45 PM EST

by Tigran Liloyan

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is ready to continue
cooperation with the government of Armenia to enlarge it and put it
on a more stable basis, WFP Executive Director James Morris said on
Wednesday during his meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Andranik
Margarian.

Morris is visiting Armenia as part of his regional trip, the
governmental press service told Itar-Tass.

The WFP executive director pointed out the economic growth of the
country and Armenian authorities’ efforts aimed at overcoming poverty.

Prime Minister Margarian highly appreciated the WFP activity that
began in September 1993.

According to him, for 13 years of its work in Armenia, the WFP has made
a substantial contribution to the improvement of the food situation
of the poorest population groups in the country, including refugees,
as well as to the development of communities by investing in the
enhancement of infrastructures and human resources.

Over this period of time, a total of 134,000 tonnes of humanitarian
food worth 75 million U.S. dollars were delivered to Armenia to cater
to the needs of about 200,000 people on an average annually.

The premier said that replacing emergency food programmes with
long-term programmes from mid-1999 was very important for his country.

In connection with the drought that affected some regions in Armenia,
the prime minister asked the WFP executive director to assist the
republic in coping with the consequences of the disaster.

Margarian also thanked the WFP leadership for the emergency aid that
the country received from the Programme during the drought of 2000.
This aid became the significant support for those farmsteads that
were affected by that drought, he said.