ALL-ARMENIAN ASSOCIATION OF POWER SPECIALISTS NGO PLANS TO CONSOLIDATE POTENTIAL OF ARMENIAN POWER SPECIALISTS AROUND WORLD
Noyan Tapan
Feb 16, 2009
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 16, NOYAN TAPAN. The main purpose of All-Armenian
Association of Power Specialists NGO registered in 2009 is to
invite those power specialists who work in the Diaspora and want to
return to Armenia, as well as to solve some problems, including the
development of Armenia’s energy sector and the export of its services
by consolidating the potential of power specialists of Armenia and
the Diaspora, the chairman of NGO Slavik Sargsyan said during an
interview with NT correspondent.
According to him, in the Soviet time, Armenia had experts (famous
throughout the USSR) specialized in repairs and assemblage of energy
facilities and the energy sector’s innovation. Power engineering
specialists of Armenia were sent on mission to Iraq, Syria, Egypt,
Vietnam, and Cuba. A lot of power specialists from Armenia now work in
Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, many have changed their speciality. About
300 experts of the Hrazdan Thermal Power Plant together with their
families have gone to Russia in recent years.
In his opinion, the return of power specialists will contribute to
the fact that they will bring the advanced experience of energy
technologies to Armenia. It is envisaged that an organization
specialized in repairs of energy facilities will form in Armenia and
it will carry out repair and assembling work both in Armenia and
abroad. It is also planned to create a database of Armenian power
specialists and an all-Armenian network, and the Association is likely
to have offices in other countries.
It was mentioned that concentrating the potential of Armenian power
experts will enable to keep the technical equipment of Armenia’s energy
system at a high level. Besides, the Association envisages creating
an educational center with the aim of training young employees to do
repair, assembling and scientific work.
As regards the activities of the Association in other countries, the
successful export of energy sector’s services may ensure an inflow
of hundreds of millions of dollars to Armenia and creation of 1.5-2
thousand high-paid jobs. He said: "If we succeed in penetrating some
part of Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian markets of the indicated
services, we can consider our task as mostly accomplished. For example,
Russia has some capacities for repairs of energy facilities, but the
number of its experts is insufficient.
Many of my friends work in Russia’s energy system; they hold high
posts or are well-qualified experts. They can be of great use to the
Association. The correct management of an expert’s work is important
here so that he will be appreciated and can get satisfaction from
his job and pay and use his knowledge and experience to the full".
In order to describe the field of the power specialists’ opportunities,
the chairman of the NGO noted that before the war in Iraq, his friend
who is the head of a big energy company signed an 800 million dollar
agreement on repairs of energy facilities in that country, but later
it became impossible to implement that agreement.
"On the other hand, one should not forget that Armenia has unused
energy resources, and if we succeed in supplying power to border
settlements at differentiated, lower tariffs, these regions will
develop through formation of new production, " S. Sargsyan underlined.
Speaking about assistance they expect from the government he said
that first of all, they are going to apply to the RA Ministry of
Diaspora with the aim of receiving support to organize an all-Armenian
conference of power specialists in Armenia to help establish links
between Armenian and Diasporan experts and ensure their involvement
in the Association’s work in some way or another. In his words, the
ministry plans to hold all-Armenian conferences of architects, lawyers
and bankers this year, and he expressed a hope that a conference of
power engineering experts will be organized as well. "Prior to that,
it is necessary to increase the number of the organization’s members
in order to enhance its influence and help it establish links,"
S. Sargsyan noted. As regards the governmental assistance in other
directions, he expressed an opinion that one way of efficiently using
the amortized deductions of energy enterprises is allocating some
part of these deductions for the creation of training and laboratory
centers at the Association. Their organization also aims to promote
the agricultural development by providing an opportunity to use
machinery serviced at low prices. The matter also concerns the use
of alternative energy resources, in particular solar energy.
The Association also envisages implementing social programs. Being a
participant in the Artsakh freedom war, S. Sargsyan said: "We intend
to establish a fund with revenues of the enterprises to be set up
by the Association and to allocate its money to support families of
perished azatamartiks (freedom fighters) and to keep the azatamartiks
who survived the war in the center of our attention".
Persons and organizations interested in cooperation with the
All-Armenian Association of Power Specialists can contact it at the
following address: #1a, 3/2 Arabkir 37th Street, Yerevan; phone:
3741 25-92-86, 3741 094-055-600; e-mail: [email protected]