SALARY OF ARMENIAN DIPLOMATS TO INCREASE BY 20% IN 2008

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Sept 6 2007

YEREVAN, September 6. /ARKA/. The salary of Armenian diplomats is to
increase by 20% in 2008, Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vardan
Oskanian told journalists in the Parliament Thursday.

According to him, the Foreign Ministry intends to increase its request
for financing for 2008 with the increase of diplomats’ salaries being
the main item of expenditures.

Oskanian also pointed out that considerable part of their requests
are met, and every year the budget of the Foreign Ministry exceeds
the levels of the previous year budget by 10-20%.

He also said that the problem of salaries of diplomats working in
the European zone is partly solved, but the issue of increasing the
salaries of diplomats inside and outside the country in connection with
inflation and improvement of housing conditions still remains unsolved.

"We should provide worthy living standards of our diplomats; besides,
in order to retain our specialists we need to ensure competitiveness
of the salaries," FM said.

AMD 4bln 149mln was provided for the Foreign Ministry under the 2006
budget. AMD 19.9mln was allocated under the "Partnership for Peace"
program, AMD 97.5mln for maintenance of military attaches, AMD 856mln
for trade representations with only AMD 59mln spent.