LOS ANGELES TIMES’ ARTICLE EXPOSES CALIFORNIA’S ARMENIAN COMMUNITY
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
July 24 2007
The Los Angeles Times newspaper on published an article yesterday
exposing California’s large Armenian community, APA’s Us bureau
reports. The article entitled "The Armenian connection" says:
"In the summer of 2003, budget-cutting California lawmakers closed
state trade promotion offices in London, Hong Kong, Mexico City and
other world business centers, a dozen in all.
But they voted to keep one open – in Yerevan.
That’s in Armenia.
Responding to an enthusiastic pitch from California’s large and
influential Armenian American community, the Legislature passed
a law creating the California-Armenia Trade Office. They charged
the new state agency with boosting California’s exports to a poor,
landlocked nation of 3 million people in a tumultuous region where
Europe and Asia uneasily meet.
Legislators, however, insisted on one novel caveat: This effort
to represent California in a nation with an economy the size of
San Bernardino County’s should run on private donations and get no
taxpayer funds.
Supporters say it’s an innovative way to help exporters reach
potentially lucrative emerging markets, not only Armenia but other
former Soviet states, including Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
"This trade office created a new model for California," said Sen.
Jack Scott (D-Altadena), author of the Armenia trade bill. Scott’s
district includes Glendale, home to a thriving Armenian American
community.
That group "loves the idea that their state of California is working
with Armenia as a gateway to that big region," said Johnny Nalbandian,
who runs the trade agency’s office in Glendale.
But critics consider it ludicrous to put the state’s sole overseas
trade office in such a small and isolated country. If California
were a nation, it would have the world’s eighth-largest economy,
they note. Armenia ranks 128th.
"If you’re going to have a trade office for the state and if you only
had to have one, it would seem that, logically, that office would be
in a more central location and a larger market," said John Leibman,
a Los Angeles lawyer and former member of the California State World
Trade Commission.
Armenia is California’s 89th-largest export market, ranking behind
Bulgaria and ahead of the Bahamas. California’s exports to Armenia,
mainly transportation equipment, machinery, computers and electronics,
totaled $25 million last year, about 2% of the state’s global
exports. Armenian exports to California, mostly processed foods, rugs
and diamonds, were valued at about $15 million, the California-Armenia
Trade Office said.
Jerry Levine, a San Francisco trade consultant who has worked for
dozens of U.S. state and foreign governments, scoffed at the assertion
that Armenia could serve as a gateway for California exports to
Eastern Europe and western Asia.
"Trade directors of other states burst into laughter at the news
that California not only closed its real offices but has its only
one in Armenia," he said. "Even worse, the bill would extend the
mandate of this office to all the former USSR states. And what is
their relationship to Armenia? Cordial?"
Armenia’s eastern and western neighbors, Azerbaijan and Turkey, have
closed their borders to trade with Armenia because of political and
ethnic conflicts in the region.
Local official Business, Transportation and Housing Agency concluded
that mentioned trade office let the hopes down. /APA/
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
