ARMENIAN, RUSSIAN PREMIERS DISCUSS ECONOMIC CONTACTS, GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS

ITAR-TASS
Dec 6 2008
Russia

MOSCOW, December 5 (Itar-Tass) — The Russian and Armenian prime
ministers have held talks to focus on closer economic interaction,
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Friday summing up
results of the meeting with his counterpart Tigran Sargsyan.

"Our relations develop dynamically. Bilateral trade grows from year
to year," Putin said, adding, "In 2007, mutual trade went up by almost
17 percent."

In his words, "Russia’s investments play a significant role in the
development of the Armenian economy."

"The total amount of Russia’s investments, accumulated in the Armenian
economy, have already reached 1.6 billion U.S. dollars," he said.

In addition, the presence of Russia’s companies in the economy of
Armenia is being expanded. Among those companies are Gazprom, INTER
RAO UES, Russian Railways and VTB (Vneshtorgbank), the Russian prime
minister said.

"The two countries have good prospects for closer cooperation in the
fuel and energy sector, non-ferrous metallurgy, transport, construction
industry, banking sphere and information technologies," Putin said.

"The current results is just the beginning," he said with the reference
to the meeting. "We are going to boost interaction," he said.

Putin said that they also discussed problems triggered by the global
financial crisis. He added that the talks would be continued to focus
on bilateral interaction in details.

Sargsyan repeated that Russian-Armenian relations develop
dynamically. The two countries fulfil projects in the energy and
infrastructure sectors.

"In 2008, bilateral interaction in the traditional spheres [energy and
infrastructure] expanded very much," the Armenian prime minister said.

"Currently, Russia and Armenia cover every sphere by their
interaction," he said, adding that about 1,000 Russian companies are
operating in Armenia.

The Armenian prime minister stressed that "it is very important to
hold consultations similar to their Friday talks at the complicated
moment the global economy is passing through."

"We should coordinate our efforts in order to overcome the crisis
problems, which our economies have faced," he said.

Sargsyan expressed hope that the new agreements reached during today’s
talks will make it possible to overcome economic difficulties.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress