ADDITIONAL AUTHORITIES IN ORDER TO COMBAT MONOPOLY

A1+
[04:59 pm] 06 October, 2006

In answer to the question of "A1+" about the raise of the costs of
imported goods in the context of fall of the US dollar in exchange,
RA Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan noted that they have turned to
the Committee Protecting Economic Competition and are waiting for their
decision after which the Government will take corresponding steps. We
turned to the Committee in order to get details about the case.

It turned out that at present the Committee is working on the
legislative amendments.

"Part of the pack of amendments refers to the necessity of giving
the Committee additional authorities in order to combat the raise of
costs. The pack of the legislative initiative will be represented
to the Government", said press secretary of the Committee Armineh
Udumyan. According to her, the present Law does not give the Committee
enough authorities in order to realize control.

Nevertheless, she noted that within the framework of its present
authorities the Committee is investigating the issue of those companies
which have monopoly in the field of the goods of mass consumption.

By the way, this year the monopolies have made reports for the
first time; according to the corresponding amendment of the law,
the monopolies are to made reports twice a year on the basis of which
the experts of the Committee assess the activity of the company and
the possible cases of abuse. The Committee made a promise to make
the results public.