THE MINISTER REFUTES

Hayots Ashkharh Daily
16 Dec 2008
Armenia

There have been no discussions about allocating money to Armenia,
during the session of the council of the corporation "Millennium
Challenges" held on December 11.

Commenting on the rumors circulated in the press regarding the delay
of the financial assistance shown to Armenia Minister of Economy
Nerses Yeritsyan underscored that it was the regular meeting of the
council of the corporation "Millennium Challenges" during which they
have touched upon certain indexes in Armenia.

The Minister said "Millennium Challenges" is guided by certain
principles: firstly they assess the criteria of the country based on
which the corporation decides whether or not to allocate money for
that country.

N. Yeritsyan expressed surprise regarding the false information
spread about that meeting, even saying that the claim submitted for
the allocation of financial assistance to Armenia has been refused.

He touched upon the report made by the corporation "Millennium
Challenges" which says that the council has discussed the reforms
initiated by the Armenian government and has expressed concern
regarding certain indexes: democracy, corruption, political freedom
and supremacy of law. The council has also underscored that during
the recent months Armenia has recorded progress, but they hope that
the Armenian government is ready to implement essential and serious
reforms.

The Minister said according to the assessments of the corporation
"Millennium Challenges" Armenia doesn’t have serious problems in terms
of the quality of life, economic policy, the management of the natural
resources and the realization of investments: "Armenia has already
started to carry out reforms, they have already recorded this and they
are following the process. We have already formulated the problems
and the actions to be taken during the coming two years," he said.

According to the Minister the report made by the corporation
"Millennium Challenges" doesn’t mention anything about the sum to be
allocated to Armenia, as certain Mass Media report.