ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT TO TAKE CONSISTENT MEASURES TO RESOLVE SITUATION IN GOLD MARKET

Noyan Tapan

Jan 29, 2009

YEREVAN, JANUARY 29, NOYAN TAPAN. At the January 29 sitting of the
Armenian government, the prime minister Tigran Sargsyan stated that
they will take consistent measures to resolve the situation in the
gold market (in Yerevan’s Khorenatsi Street) owned by Vagharsh & Sons
Ltd. "We are not going to yield to the pressures that exist today. If
that man cannot ensure normal working conditions for thousands of
employees, there will be others ready to provide these services,"
the prime minister underlined.

In his words, he received a letter from employees of the market, in
which they complain about the terrible working conditions there. Even
elementary working conditions are absent in the market, and there are
numerous problems related to health, hygiene and sanitary conditions,
heating, air conditioning, fire prevention, etc. In addition, they
have to pay huge amounts for a square meter of trade space. Jewelry
workshops of no smaller areas than a jewelry plant are operated in
the market, but the safety rules are not observed there either.

The prime minister said that the organizer of the trade place had
told the employees of the market that "if they are dissatisfied with
these conditions, they may leave their jobs". However, according
to T. Sargsyan, these people have to put up with all this in order
not to lose their jobs and small incomes. "At the same time the trade
organizer conceals his superprofits from the state and at their expense
builds elite houses in Tsakhkadzor," T. Sargsyan noted. Besides,
according to him, hundreds of unregsitered employees were revealed,
which is another manifestation of tax evasion.