Armenian prime minister: Government of Armenia develops and implements
state-private business cooperation concept aimed at reconstruction of
the country’s big enterprises
2009-03-13 19:05:00
ArmInfo. The government of Armenia has developed and is implementing
the state-private business cooperation concept able to lead to
activation of the process of reconstruction of the big Armenian
enterprises, Prime Minister of Armenia told journalists when replying
to ArmInfo correspondent’s question about the destiny of the
currently-idle giants of the local industry.
As he said, the concept supposes development of long-term programmes
by the state based on the principle of cooperation with the private
economy sector. `The state should assist the owners where it is able,
and must not hinder the owners where they should assume the risks in
the process of investments’, T. Sarkisyan said. Such a mutual
cooperation is a guarantee of harmony of the investors’ programmes
with the government programmes, and the legislative field in the
future will not become an obstacle for the business development, that
makes the investors confident during attraction of serious investments
into the big enterprises of Armenia for profit earning. T. Sarkisyan
recalled that the major part of Armenia’s big enterprises, which used
to occupy the monopoly position in the whole Soviet space, were
privatized in 1990-1995. There was more romanticism that time, people
believed that the owners will appear after privatization and manage
these enterprise more efficiently. Unfortunately, this approach did
not prove itself as the new owners had no relevant knowledge and were
not acquainted with the market economy rules, that led to the negative
consequences. `We did not know how to organize the work of the
enterprises, and the agreements, signed with the owners, did not take
into account the state interests paying more attention to protection
of the interests of private owners. Very often, when the cases
appeared in the courts, it turned out that there were no points
available in the agreements aimed at protection of the state
interests, that led to defeat of the state in the courts on the own
suits’, the PM said.
As a result, T. Sarkisyan said, serious problems appeared. At the same
time, he recalled about existence of the problem of common economic
ties among the former USSR republics, while in the conditions of
independence the activity of these enterprises turned out to be
unprofitable. Investments were required to turn these enterprises into
profitable business, however, there were no investments because of
absence of private owners with an accumulated capital. `Naturally,
absence of these funds and clear ideas about the ways of development
of these enterprises led to the present situation’, the prime minister
said. Afterwards, the required experience, knowledge and funds were
gradually accumulated, which could be directed to reconstruction of
these enterprises’, T Sarkisyan emphasized.