GYUMRI, APARAN AND VARDENIS JOIN WORLD UNION OF CITIES STRUGGLING AGAINST POVERTY
Noyan Tapan
Mar 30 2006
YEREVAN, MARCH 30, NOYAN TAPAN. On March 29, the 5th forum of the
World Union of Cities Struggling against Poverty opened in the Spanish
town of Valencia. City-members of the union, union’s partner cities
and associations, members of parliaments, governments, businessmen,
other high-ranking officials take part in the forum. Vardenis
Mayor Vardan Barseghian and Aparan Deputy Mayor Georgi Yeremian are
included in the Armenian delegation. The goal of the forum is to
work out the Mayor’s Offices’ strategy of actions aimed at poverty
reduction taking as a basis the experience of Mayor’s Offices during
the international decade of poverty reduction, in 1997-2007. RA NA
Speaker Artur Baghdasarian spoke during the opening of the forum. He,
in particular, said that the forum enables the country-participants
to summarize and to estimate the results of the efforts strained
earlier, to discuss the challanges in the issue of reduction of the
evil called poverty, as well as to outline the best ways of confronting
these challenges. According to him, the forum is the best opportunity
for the participant cities to look for verges of cooperation and to
initiate joint programs. “Poverty reduction cannot be limited to only
material and financial assistance. The violation of human rights and
bad management prepare a good ground for extension of poverty volumes,”
RA NA Speaker said.
According to the report provided to Noyan Tapan from RA NA Public
Relations Department, henceforth the forum’s works will continue
in working groups. The most important event of the day for Armenia
was that during the forum, among cities of other countries, Gyumri,
Aparan and Vardenis also joined the World Assembly of Cities Struggling
against Poverty, which will give possibilities for implementation of
development programs in these towns.