ADB TO DISCUSS PROPOSALS OF ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER IN COMING WEEK

Noyan Tapan

Nov 19, 2008

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 19, NOYAN TAPAN. During the November 18 meeting with
the Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, the President of the
Asian Development bank (ADB) Haruhiko Kuroda spoke favorably of the
current state of the Armenian economy, taking into consideration the
high economic growth, moderate inflation and the sound macrpoeconomic
policy. According to the president of ADB, Armenian economy needs
high-quality infrastructures today, and ADB and the Armenian government
are already cooperating in this direction. H. Kuroda said that this is
his first visit to Armenia, and it has two major goals: to discuss the
directions of further cooperation and to attend the opening ceremony
of the ADB Office in Yerevan.

T. Sargsyan expressed gratitude to the bank for its assistance to
reconstruction of rural roads, the projects on water supply and
sewerage sector, and preparation of a strategy of developing the
transport sector in Armenia. He presented the possible directions of
future cooperation and the existing potential. The prime minister in
particular underlined the assistance for reduction of the consequences
of the global financial crisis and for introduction of electronic
governance in Armenia, and the crediting of SME sector through
provision of credits to Armenian banks. T. Sargsyan anticipated the
ADB’s participation in formation of technoparks and free economic
zones in Armenia, and development of transit transport infrastructures.

According to the RA Government Information and PR Department, H. Kuroda
added the IT sector to those indicated by T. Sargsyan, noting that in
his opinion, Armenia has serious potential in IT sector. The president
of ADB promised to discuss the presented proposals in the coming week
and respond to them.