3 BILLION DID NOT SERVE THE COUNTRY

15:59:51 – 25/03/2010
hos17294.html

March 25, the former Armenian Prime Minister Hrant Bagratyan dwelt on
the interview of the Armenian former president Robert Kocharyan where
the latter, speaking about the economic situation of the country, said
during his tenure it was better and the capital construction was
growing and the external debt of the country in comparison with the
GDP was cut reaching 13 percent from 46.

Hrant Bagratyan said, criticizing Robert Kocharyan, you unwittingly
become a supporter of Serge Sargsyan. He stressed that he criticizes
the economic policies of both, and is not interested in the
disagreements between them.

Bagratyan, commenting on the statement of Kocharyan on the reduction
of external debt, said that in those days, the dollar depreciated
sharply – from 580 to 300 drams per U.S. dollar. `It’s a lie, and the
trouble is that even the one, who says it, does not understand that
this is a lie’, notes Bagratyan.

With respect to capital construction during the presidency of
Kocharyan, as to its volumes it was not very different from the `dark
and cold years’, when they were building social housing, but during
Kocharyan it just became more elite. `I blame those people, and the
government and financial institutions: how can they afford to carry
out an elite building in central Yerevan costing 3 billion dollars in
the absence of demand’, wonders Hrant Bagratyan. According to him,
they bought the land under those houses on 1000-1500 dollars per
square meters and built 12-story buildings, a square meter of which
cost only 300-400 dollars, they sold the house several times more
expensive than the cost and receive 800% of profit. Moreover,
Kocharyan in such cases does not speak as a president but as a
developer.

`He has problems with implementation. He said that the government must
stimulate demand for housing’, said Bagratyan. He noted that the costs
of building were covered after the implementation of 15% of
apartments. `3 billion did not serve the needs of the state’, said
Hrant Bagratyan.