Results of 2009 activities of State Commission for Protection of
Economic Competition summarized

YEREVAN, JANUARY 22, NOYAN TAPAN. Summarizing the results of the
activities of the RA State Commission for the Protection of Economic
Competition in 2009, the commission chairman David Harutyunian said on
January 22 that considerable work was done last year. Besides, the
commission put forward a new legislative initiative, by which its
powers have been specified.

D. Harutyunian said the new legislative package envisages the
introduction of an institution of warning so as to warn in advance
economic entities to refrain from violations when the commission
considers such violations as possible.

Speaking about monitoring of food prices, D. Harutyunian said unlike
the previous years when the economic entities used to raise prices
before the New Year, no sharp rise in prices was recorded in late
2009. "This happened thanks to our commission’s efforts and a new
practice of economic entities which started to use a system of
discounts," the commission chairman stated.

As for the growth in prices of some foodstuffs, particularly
granulated sugar and butter, he said studies show that in the last
months of 2009 the prices of these products rose by 37% and 25%
respectively in Armenia as compared with January of the same year due
to a rise in international prices: the prices of granulated sugar and
butter rose by 90% and 58% respectively.

As regards the checks conducted in the drug market in November 2009,
according to D. Harutyunian, the commission is currently summarizing
the monitoring results. "We can say definitely that the prices of
drugs have not fluctuated over the last two months," he noted.

D. Harutyunian said that the RA Ministry of Healthcare has prepared a
legislative package on drugs, by which the prices of important drugs
included in the list shall be controlled by the state, while the
mechanisms will be indicated in a government decision. In his words,
in almost all the countries, prices of important drugs are regulated
by the state. By the way, Russia also started using this experience on
1 January 2010.