BELARUS INTERESTED IN ARMENIA’S MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE PROGRAM

Noyan Tapan
Oct 23 2006

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 23, NOYAN TAPAN. A tete-a-tete talk took place
between the Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margarian and his
Belarusian counterpart Sergei Sidorski at the Armenian government
on October 23, after which the negotiations continued in an extended
staff. Expressing his satisfaction with the current level of mutual
trust and relations between the two countries, A. Margarian said that
both the practical and warm personal relations between the Armenian
and Belarusian presidents have greatly contributed to it. In his
words, a stable legal and contractual basis has been created for
the Armenian-Belarusian cooperation, with nearly 40 agreements and
treaties being signed. During the talk, the two prime ministers
discussed in detail the current state and development prospects of
the bilateral economic cooperation. They noted with satisfaction
that the commodity turnover has grown 6.4fold in the 5-year period
between the two visits of the Armenian prime minister to Belarus. This
was promoted by the efficient activities of the Armenian-Belarusian
intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation. At
the same time, A. Margarian and S. Sidorski underlined that despite
the high growth rates of the commodity turnover, its current volume
does not correspond to the existing potential and opportunities of
the two countries. The prime ministers expressed confidence that the
economic cooperation can be considerably promoted through cooperation
at the level of local self-government bodies of Armenian and Belarusian
regions through the establishment of direct links. They also spoke in
favor of signing bilateral documents with this aim. A. Margarian and
S. Sidorski pointed out that today several regions and cities from
both sides have been involved in this process: in 2004, a cooperation
agreement was signed between the Armenian marz (province) of Syunik
and the Minsk region (Belarus), while within the framework of this
visit, an agreement will be signed between the city of Kajaran (Syunik
marz) and the city of Zhodino (Minsk region). The sides indicated the
establishment of joint ventures as an important factor for promoting
the economic cooperation between the two countries. Noting that 18
Armenian-Belarusian joint ventures are currently registered in Armenia,
A. Margarian spoke about considerable opportunities of cooperation in
this respect. The two prime ministers expressed their satisfaction
over efficient cooperation in military, military-technical and
cultural spheres, and the cooperation between the RA Police and the
Ministry of Interior Affairs of Belarus. They attached importance
to development of cooperation in IT, pharmaceutical, agricultural,
energy, jewelry making and some other sectors, for which purpose
businessmen from the above mentioned sectors, who are interested
in establishing partrnership relations, are included in official
delegations during mutual visits. During the meeting in an extended
staff, the sides discussed the opportunities to increase the export
of some Armenian goods in the bilateral trade, including the opening
of an Armenian firm shop in Minsk for this purpose, as well as
opportunities of organizing an exhibition of Armenian products in
Belarus and creating a center on assembly and servicing of agricultural
machines in Armenia. S. Sidorski said that his country takes interest
in Armenia’s Millennium Challenge Program aimed at rural poverty
reduction and intends to participate in international competitions
to be announced for implementation of this program, thus trying to
be useful for Armenia by its capacities and experience related to
development of agriculture and infrastructures. According to the RA
Government Information and PR Department, the ceremony of signing
joint documents took place on the same day.