IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is partnering with IAB International Academy of Business to help Armenian banks strengthen risk management systems, so that they continue providing much-needed finance to businesses, amid the challenges in operating environment.
IFC’s advisory team and IAB International Academy of Business are launching a series of workshops for banks on risk management and non-performing loans (NPLs) over the next 12 months, part of efforts to reinforce the stability of the financial institutions and prevent further NPLs.
The initiative also aims to help financial institutions introduce innovative solutions for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), helping the banks expand this line of business and increase lending to smaller businesses. Access to finance was identified as the main challenge for SMEs by the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2015-2016.
“Given increased volatility, it can no longer be assumed that financial institutions will continue operating as they used to in the past. Additional measures are required to help develop the foundation of the financial sector and support its growth,” said Araksya Martirossian, CEO of IAB International Academy of Business. “This is an exciting initiative for the development of Armenia’s economy and we are delighted to be partnering with IFC for its delivery.”
“In challenging economic times, financial institutions tend to tighten their lending and focus on mid-size and large businesses. This results in credit becoming less accessible to SMEs,” said Jan van Bilsen, IFC Regional Manager for the South Caucasus. “This initiative aims to help Armenian banks strengthen their risk management practices and continue financing small businesses, a key engine of economic growth.”
The efforts also aim to help Armenian financial institutions understand their capital adequacy models, especially important in light of increased minimum capital regulatory requirements. It is part of the IFC Strengthening Financial Systems in Europe and Central Asia project, funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).
Armenia became an IFC member in 1995. Since then, IFC’s long-term investment commitments have totaled $340 million, including nearly $23 million mobilized from other lenders, financing 47 projects across a range of sectors. IFC has also supported trade transactions worth around $130 million through its trade finance program, and implemented a number of advisory projects focused on private sector development.
In fiscal year 2015, IFC invested almost $18 billion in developing countries worldwide.
The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs plan to visit the region, but no exact date has been set, Russian Co-Chair Igor Popov said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
“We’ll definitely visit the region, but are still coordinating the date with the parties,” he said.
Popov said all members of the Minsk Group held their regular meeting in Vienna Monday. The Russian, American and French Co-Chairs and the personal representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office participated in the meeting.
“The meeting was generally dedicated to the assessment of the recent mediating efforts taken by the co-chairing countries and the results of the summit in St. Petersburg. My French and American colleagues told about French President Francois Hollande’s and Secretary of State John Kerry’s discussions with the parties. We also discussed the further mediating efforts,” Popov said.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will pay a working visit to Moscow on July 14-15.
“Secretary Kerry will travel to Moscow where he will begin a series of meetings with senior Russian officials to discuss Syria, Ukraine, Nagorno-Karabakh, among other issues,” Spokesperson for the US Department of State John Kirby told the daily briefing.
Photo: Reuters
Syrian rebel fighters have launched an assault on government-held districts of Aleppo, after troops cut their only route into the divided northern city, the BBC reports.
The rebel operation began at dawn on several fronts, with hundreds of shells being fired at western areas.
State media said eight people were killed and dozens hurt by the barrage.
The attack follows a failed attempt by rebels to re-open the Castello Road, the only way out of the rebel-held east for some 300,000 people living there.
Russia plays a leading role in the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Russia’s Plenipotentiary Representative to the OSCE Alexander Lukashevich told Russia-24 in an interview.
“The attempt to reach an agreement with the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Vienna through the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs (Russia, France, USA) certainly gave some impulse, but the Russian side has the largest potential,” the Russian diplomat said, TASS reports.
He noted that he expects no breakthrough connected with the visit of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to Yerevan and Baku.
“Although the acting chairmanship leads the process, it’s states that make decisions. The Chairman-in-Office, undoubtedly, plays an important role, but it’s not the driving force. The driving force is the Minsk Group with its three co-chairs,” he noted.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry has slammed Pope Francis for using the word ‘genocide’ during his trip to Armenia, accusing the Pontiff of “pursuing an unconditional commitment to Armenian perspective of the controversy.”
In a statement released on its official website Monday, the ministry said: “Pope Francis’ bias on historical events and marginalizing attitude during his visit to Armenia does not comply with his frequently-emphasized efforts to build peace between different groups.”
The ministry said it was disappointing to see that Pope Francis had no contribution to establishing highly-needed peace and stability in Eastern Caucasus in the wake of recent clashes at the Karabakh line of contact.
The statement added that Pope Francis was instead expected to put efforts in establishing peace and friendship for the coming generations.
A team of scientists comes up with an unusual idea to preserve the disappearing snows of Armenia, according to .
Because of climate change, the weather in the small mountainous country of Armenia is getting hotter and hotter. The mountain snows that normally serve as a source of water now melt earlier, meaning floods in the spring and droughts in the summer.
Filmmaker Vardan Hovhannisyan follows a team of Armenian scientists on Mount Aragats who has come up with an unusual new idea to preserve the mountain snows.
On April 27 the traditional Flower Gathering event took place in the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex
on the initiative of the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets. Since 2010 the
Flower Gathering has been supported by the FPWC’s General Partner VivaCell-MTS.
The initiative combines the idea of giving these flowers a new lease of life and the environmental mission
that promotes recycling. The flowers laid at the Genocide Memorial on April 24 are gathered and their
stems are removed from the petals. The petals are used to derive compost, and the stems – to make
handmade recycled paper. The compost is used for the treatment of the soil in the Genocide Memorial
Park, while the handmade recycled paper is used to make certificates or postcards. This year Yerevan
Botanical Garden and ORWACO CJSC Armenian-Norwegian joint venture will help get bio humus from
the stems.
“During the last few years this initiative has become the natural continuation of April 24. The idea of the
Flower Gathering has been so consonant with people’s expectations, that it became everyone’s, getting an especially wide response among youth. Flower Gathering is now an integral of the impel that drove tens of thousands to the memorial every year,” FPWC Founder Ruben Khachatryan noted.
The event was attended by hundreds of representatives of non-governmental and international
organizations, private and public sector representatives, schoolchildren and students, ambassadors and
officials.
More than 3,000 activists from across Canada gathered in Ottawa on April 24, to commemorate the 101st anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and protest the Turkish government’s ongoing denial of the crime, the reports.
The demonstrators gathered at the steps of Parliament Hill to thank the Canadian government for recognizing the Armenian Genocide, and to call on it to exert pressure on its NATO ally, Turkey, to come to terms with its past and put an end to its ongoing policy of genocide denial.
Demonstrators then marched via Rideau St. to the Turkish Embassy to protest against Turkey’s ongoing denial policies and human rights violations, and to demand justice and reparations for the 1.5 million victims of the Armenian Genocide.
The Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) of Canada stressed the need for recognition and reparations in their annual speech. “We are here to tell this embassy that we will never accept an apology from the Turkish Government, which offers no recognition, accepts no responsibility, expresses no regret, and suggests no reparations for the crimes committed”, read the statement.
AYF Canada members read information about the lost churches and cultural centers, as well as the traditions of the confiscated provinces of Western Armenia, making clear the Armenian losses are tangible and reinforcing the importance of reparations in any resolution for their cause.
Protest organizers also highlighted the various human rights abuses committed by the Turkish government today. “President Erdogan’s infamous regime not only shamelessly continues to deny the Armenian Genocide, but actively suppresses freedom of speech and continues its notorious mistreatment and marginalization of minorities in Turkey, with minimal regard to human rights and democracy,” read a part of the statement.
Addressing the participants of the rally, Armenia’s Ambassador to Canada Armen Yeganian said: “On behalf of all Armenians, I am grateful to the Government of Canada. Both the Senate and the House of Commons have adopted resolutions referring to the Armenian Genocide. All Canadian Prime Ministers since 2006 issue a proper proclamation on that day. We are grateful to the global civil society and international press representatives that have been voicing the importance of the Armenian Genocide recognition. We are grateful to all people of good will — all those who stood by the side of the Armenian people in the course of commemoration events around the world this year.”