14:55,

YEREVAN, MAY 16, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan assures that concrete processes have taken place for revealing the real owners of mining companies, these processes will continue.

During today’s online press conference the reporter said that back to December 2019 the PM stated that the list of owners of mining companies in Armenia will be published in January-February. Pashinyan was asked why this issue has been forgotten.

“It has not been forgotten, quite the contrary, many concrete processes have taken place. Legislative changes have taken place for revealing the real owners. And based on these changes, the deadline for submitting declarations of persons involved in the field has been set on February 20, 2020. I mean that this process is completely in process”, the PM said.

Pashinyan said this is a new system not only in Armenia, but also around the world, and the declaration system of real owners still needs to work, develop, and the legislative changes must take place. However, he said that the names of real owners are revealed, at least at the public level. “There are also some criminal cases, and I think that all answers to these questions will be clear during the investigation of these criminal cases and successful passing to the judicial stage. But I mean that this process is not forgotten, it moves on and will go to the end”, he said.

On April 23, 2019, the Armenian parliament adopted the bill on revealing the real owners of mining companies.

Reporting by Anna Grigoryan; Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan