Author: Karapet Navasardian

During an official ceremony on January 27, NASDAQ OMX Armenia marked the successful launch of the first securitized bond issuance in Armenia and announced the listing of these bonds at the stock exchange for the secondary market trade.  This landmark transaction was made possible through the joint efforts of USAID, Capital Investments, and universal credit organizations.  In attendance at the event were U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of International Economic Integration and Reforms Vache Gabrielyan, Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia Vakhtang Abrahamyan, CEO of NASDAQ OMX Armenia Konstantin Saroyan, CEO of Capital Investments Tigran Karapetyan, as well as representatives of international organizations and financial institutions.

“This event is important most of all because it will make more funds available for the development of rural areas – to help farmers expand production and entrepreneurs start businesses in rural villages – and for consumer loans. The first securitized bond issuance in Armenia is also an opportunity to support new financial products in Armenia.  This new type of financial product combines many development initiatives that we have pursued over the years – all focused on making more funds available in the credit system for the development of rural areas,” said Ambassador Mills.

While the microfinance industry is well established in Armenia, it cannot currently service micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) properly due to the lack of lending capital.  Microfinance institutions, such as universal credit organizations (UCOs), are not allowed to take deposits and this further limits their ability to extend credit to MSMEs. USAID, through its Finance for Economic Development (FED) project, worked with five UCOs – CARD AgroCredit, Garni Invest, Global Credit, Kamurj, and Nor Horizon – to help them issue bonds to attract lending capital.  USAID assisted with the design of the initial bonds through close coordination with the Central Bank of Armenia, UCOs, and USAID’s Development Credit Authority experts.

The bonds were issued by a newly established special purpose vehicle, the Loan Portfolio Securitization Fund I.  Managed by Capital Investments, the Fund was established in August 2015 with the purpose of securitizing the $2 million worth microfinance loans of the five participating UCOs.  The Securitization Fund is offering the bonds publically on NASDAQ OMX Armenia. To make this investment attractive and relatively risk-free for bondholders, a USAID Development Credit Authority (DCA) guarantee was issued in late November 2015 to cover 50 percent of the bond’s principal.  Primary bondholders include pension asset managers and several banks, among other financial institutions.  The bondholders are collectively represented by a legal agent approved by USAID, as a guarantor for the transaction.

Arman Vardanyan, the CEO of pension fund manager, C-QUADRAT Ampega Asset Management Armenia, said: “We consider the launch of the asset-backed securities in Armenia as yet another step forward towards fostering the growth of capital markets. The continuity of such issuances is vital for building links between the real economy and the financial sector while providing additional investment opportunities for the long-term investors in the country.”

Real Madrid have topped the league table of the world’s 20 richest football clubs for the 11th year in a row, according to Deloitte.

Its Football Money League, based on season 2014-15, also said the combined revenues of the 20 clubs had risen 8% to €6.6bn, a new record.

Real’s arch-rivals Barcelona rose two places to second on the list, pushing Manchester United down to third.

Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich completed the top five.

The list only looks at revenues accrued and does not take into account club debts.

All the 20 clubs represented are from the “big five” European leagues, with Italy contributing four clubs, Germany three, Spain three and France one.

Real Madrid saw revenues of €577m.

The club saw revenue growth of €27.5m, including an increase of €22.7m in commercial revenues from the previous season.

DELOITTE FOOTBALL MONEY LEAGUE

•1. Real Madrid: €577m

•2. Barcelona: €560.8m

•3. Man Utd: €519.5m

•4. Paris Saint Germain; €480.8m

•5. Bayern Munich: €474m

•6. Manchester City: €463.5m

•7. Arsenal: €435.5m

•8. Chelsea: €420m

•9. Liverpool: €391.8m

•10. Juventus: €323.9m

London-based Mossessian Architecture has won a competition to design the Makkah Museum, a new building dedicated to the Islamic faith in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, reports. 

The Makkah Museum will occupy a site seven kilometres from the Grand Mosque, which houses the Kaaba – the most sacred location in the world for Muslims.

The building will include 5,600 square metres of gallery space to host exhibitions related to the international practice and history of Islam and the life of Muhammad.

It will also contain a reception area, an auditorium, book store, teaching space, roof garden and restaurant.

The Makkah Museum will offer a unique interpretation and reflection of faith to the millions of Muslims who visit Makkah from around the world and who, up until this point, have had no cultural institution of this kind to enhance their visit to the holiest of Muslim cities,” said a statement from Mossessian.

Mossessian teamed up with Paris exhibition architects Studio Adeline Rispal to enter the invited competition for the museum project. The duo were announced as the winners this week.

Established and led by French Armenian architect Michel Mossessian, Mossessian Architecture is an award-winning London-based architecture practice. 

Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian will arrive on an official visit to Bulgaria on Friday, January 15 at the invitation of Bulgarian Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov, Focus News Agency reports, quoting the press office of the ministry announced.

The two Foreign Ministers will discuss the bilateral relations and the opportunities for their strengthening, the regional cooperation, the Armenia-EU dialogue and the development of the transport infrastructure.

Minister Mitov and Minister Nalbandian will hold a joint briefing.
In the frames of the visit to Bulgaria Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian will also meet with President Rosen Plevneliev and National Assembly Chairperson Tsetska Tsacheva.

On the initiative of Ayb School and MIC Armenia (Microsoft Innovation Center Armenia) and with the partnership of VivaCell-MTS, Menu.am, Ayb High School hosted the Hour of Code event on December 20.

The Hour of Code is an international global movement reaching more than 100 million participants from around 45 000 schools of over 180 countries.  The Hour of Code gives participants an opportunity to learn various programming languages and approaches easily through games and helps nurture problem-solving skills, logic, and creativity. All who are interested in new technologies, games, and programming can participate. There is no age limit, and it is not required to have any knowledge of programing languages. Only English language knowledge is required.

This year, the Hour of Code is going to take place for the second time in Armenia. Last year the event united more than 150 participants from different schools of Armenia. The interest towards this initiative is rising. More than 200 participants took part in the Hour of Code 2015.

“Nowadays, programing is available to everyone. The main aim of the Hour of Code is to develop programming thinking regardless of career. The Hour of Code 2014 showed that such initiatives bring together and inspire many children. Ayb School encourages such innovation formats. We believe that the implementation of such projects is a large investment in the education and development of future generations,” said Aram Pakhchanian, the head of Ayb School.

“Today technologies are used in every aspect of life—from phones to cars, medicine to daily life. That is why in schools of many countries programming is a school subject. Microsoft Innovation Center attaches great importance to this initiative, which aims to show schoolchildren from early ages how technologies that they use are created,” said MIC director Artashes Vardanyan.

Besides the main part of the event, robotics show, creation of new samples out of broken phones, and other activities took place during the Hour of Code. The official hashtag is #HourofCodeEVN.

15 December marked the start of a new EU-funded project in Armenia. The Organic Agriculture Support Initiative (OASI) will help to develop the potential of the Armenian organic agriculture sector over the next three years. The project is co-funded and implemented by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), the operational unit of the Austrian Development Cooperation.

Agriculture is a major source for employment in Armenia and contributes to almost 20% of its GDP. The country has high potential for organic agricultural production, which is believed to contribute significantly to improve rural livelihoods in a sustainable manner in the future. “Organic agriculture development is a priority defined in the Sustainable Agriculture Development Strategy of the RA Ministry of Agriculture. It aims to support farmers and agribusinesses to invest in organic agriculture; increase production; explore new international markets and ensure availability of organic products locally,” said RA Deputy Minister of Agriculture Mr. Armen Harutyunyan.

“We are happy to support the Organic Agriculture Support Initiative. It confirms our commitment to the rural sector in Armenia, and will be complement support that is already being provided through the EU funded ENPARD Programme, where we also cooperate very successfully with the Austrian Development Agency,” said the Head of EU Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador H.E. Piotr Antoni Świtalski.

This project specifically aims at increasing local value-added of Armenian organic products as well as assisting higher efficiency of relevant public and private institutions. It will support the RA Ministry of Agriculture with creating a clear and enabling legal environment for organic producers and processors in line with international standards. OASI will also strengthen extension services for the promotion of organic technologies and support educational institutions through curricula development. The project has a budget of € 3.3 million and will be implemented over the course of three years.

A big portion of the project support will be rolled out directly to Armenian producers and processors through a call for grant applications. Small grants are available for smallholder farmers seeking to start, diversify or expand organic production, while bigger grants will be available to already established organic farmers, co-operatives and processors for enhancing productivity and market access.

To convince Armenian farmers and consumers about the benefits and value-added of organic agriculture, an awareness raising campaign will be carried out. “Austria has a long standing history of organic agriculture and today almost 20% of agricultural crop land is cultivated organically. We strive to contribute with this experience to our projects that support small-scale farmers in enhancing agricultural production and marketing. Organic agriculture allows for an optimal use of natural resources while preserving the environment and biodiversity at the same time”, said Robert Zeiner, Director Programmes and Projects International of the Austrian Development Agency (ADA).

EU assistance to Armenia has reached over € 500 million since 1992, with annual support growing progressively over the years. The Austrian Development Agency has been supporting Armenia since 2011 as a priority country for development cooperation with a specific focus on improving the agricultural sector.

Photo: Sputnik/ Mikhail Voskresenskiy

 

The Syrian army, backed by local militia forces, has regained control over the Mardj-al-Sultan military airbase outside Damascus, a source in the militia told RIA Novosti Monday.

Naming a baby is one of the biggest decisions new parents have to make, so it makes sense that Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West are taking their time choosing a name for their new son.

A day after their second child was born, the star couple still haven’t chosen his first name — or, at least, they aren’t sharing it yet — a source told .

The pair took almost a week to name daughter North, 2, and, shortly before her son’s arrival, Kardashian West told PEOPLE that they still didn’t have a name picked out. However, the source did say that Kardashian West reportedly told people at the hospital that she was going to use her late father’s name — Robert — for the child’s middle name.

“It’s like the last thing Kanye and I did when North was born,” she shared. “We didn’t name her for like seven days. I feel like it will just come to us.”

A source close to West also told PEOPLE that they hadn’t shared the new baby’s name yet.

“He never said anything about the name. Even if they had one picked out, he wasn’t going to share it. He doesn’t believe in telling anyone the name until the baby is born.”

The first source also reveals that Kardashian West did not have a C-section to deliver her baby, which was surely a relief.

After she learned that her baby was breech, the reality star wrote on her website and app that she was hoping to avoid delivering via C-section.

“Obviously, if it’s an emergency and for the safety of my son, I will get a C-section — but if I don’t need one, I’d rather not,” Kardashian West wrote.

The new mom had plenty of support throughout the delivery: Most of herfamily members stopped by the hospital on Saturday to deliver gifts and see their newest addition. And, the source says, older sister Kourtney, who has three children of her own and to whom Kardashian West has said she often turns to for pregnancy advice, stayed with her sister throughout her labor.

Russian President Vladimir Putin lashed out at “part of the leadership in Turkey” during his annual address to the parliament, accusing Ankara of having trade ties with terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq,  reports.

He also promised more sanctions for Turkey over downing of the Russian jet.

Putin said Russia still cannot comprehend why the downing of the plane happened.

“We were prepared to cooperate with Turkey on most sensitive issues and go further than their allies. Allah knows why they did it. Apparently Allah decided to punish the ruling clique in Turkey by taking their sanity,” Putin said.

Putin stressed that Moscow’s anger over the incident is directed at particular individuals and not at the Turkish people.

“We have many friends in Turkey,” he said. “They should know that we do not equate them and part of the current Turkish leadership, which holds a direct responsibility for the deaths of our troops in Syria,” he said.

He added that the killing of Russian officers would have long-term consequences for those responsible.

“We will not forget this aid to terrorists. We have always considered betrayal the worst and most shameful act. Let those in Turkey know it who shot our pilots in the back, who hypocritically tries to justify themselves and their actions and cover up the crimes of terrorists,” he said.

Putin said Russia would not resort to saber-rattling to respond to the Turkish actions, but neither would it limit itself to the economic sanctions it imposed since the incident.

The incident with the Russian Su-24 bomber shot down by Turkish warplanes near the Turkish-Syrian border has greatly deteriorated relations between the two countries. Turkey insists it acted in response to a brief violation of its airspace and was justified in using lethal force. Russia insists no violation took place and has accused Turkey of supporting terrorists in Syria.

The downing of the bomber resulted in the deaths of two Russian troops, who were the first combat losses during the two month-long Syrian campaign. The pilot of the downed plane was killed by a pro-Turkish militant group as he was parachuting to the ground. A marine was killed by militants when a helicopter dispatched to rescue the bomber crew came under fire from the ground.

Putin’s address started with a minute’s silence to commemorate the two troops. The widows of the dead Russians were present at the event.

Putin stressed that the Russian operation in Syria is aimed first and foremost at preventing fighters who went to the Middle East from Russia and its neighboring countries from returning home and bringing the threat of terrorist attacks to Russian soil.

“They are getting money, weapons, gathering strength. If they get stronger, winning there, they will inevitably come here to sow fear and hatred, blast, kill and torture people,” Putin said.

Putin called on all nations that have pledged to fight terrorism to join forces and abandon the notion that terrorist groups can be used for country’s own goals. He stressed that the rise of terrorism in the Middle East over the last few years was caused to a large degree by foreign meddling.

“Some countries in the Middle East and North Africa, which used to be stable and relatively prosperous – Iraq, Libya, Syria – have turned into zones of chaos and anarchy that pose a threat to entire world,” Putin said.

“We know why it happened. We know who wanted to oust unwanted regimes, and rudely impose their own rules. They triggered hostilities, destroyed statehoods, set people against each other and simply washed their hands [of the situation] – giving way to radicals, extremists and terrorists.”

Russia’s lost thousands of lives over two decades of terrorist attacks and is still not safe from terrorist attacks, as evidenced by the bombings in Volgograd in 2014 and the bombing of a Russian passenger plane in Egypt in October, Putin reminded.

“Breaking the bandits’ back took us almost 10 years,” he said. “We practically pushed the terrorists out of Russia, but we are still engaged in a fierce fight against the remainder of the gangs. This evil still comes back occasionally.”

Putin said the rise of jihadists in the Middle East in our time is not unlike the rise of Nazism in the mid-20th century, and that the world should learn from the mistakes of the past, when a failure to act in time resulted in the loss of millions of lives.

“We are facing a destructive barbaric ideology again and we have no right to allow those new obscurants to achieve their goals. We have to abandon all differences, create a single fist, a single anti-terrorist front, which would act in accordance with the international law and under the aegis of the United Nations,” he said.

Putin was speaking on Thursday before the Federal Assembly, a joint session of the two chambers of the Russian parliament, plus regional governors and the cabinet. The annual address is a traditional key policy report of the executive, which focuses on domestic politics rather than international relations.

The Parliament of Aragon has adopted a declaration recognizing and condemning the Armenian Genocide. The text, which was tabled by MP Gregorio Briz Sánchez, pays homage to the over 1.5 million Armenian victims killed by the Ottoman Empire and asks all Turkish Institutions, including the government, to acknowledge this historical fact, the European Friends of Armenia (EuFoA) reports.

Given that 2015 marks the centenary of the Armenian Genocide many international organizations,such as the European Parliament,and political bodies have adopted motions commemorating it. Pope Francis also added his voice and recognized the Armenian Genocide in a declaration made in April. These events were all referred to in the document adopted by Aragonese parliament.

In addition, the text pays tribute to the victims of the Armenian Genocide in a spirit of solidarity and European justice.  It underlines that the European Union should make genocide prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity a top priority.

The resolution calls also on the government of Turkey to use the commemoration of the centenary of the Armenian Genocide as an opportunity to recognize it, open its archives and choose the path of reconciliation between the Turkish and Armenian people. It also highlights that a growing number of Turkish intellectuals, politicians and members of civil society have acknowledged the Armenian Genocide and encourages Turkish institutions to do the same.

‘It is very encouraging to see that this year, not only the European, but also member states and regional parliaments have adopted resolutions recognizing the Armenian Genocide’ Comments Eduardo Lorenzo Ochoa, director of European Friends of Armenia. ‘I believe that this sends a strong message to Turkey, that Europe is waiting for them to recognize their history. Today it also sends a clear signal to the Armenians: Aragonese people arestanding with them in recognizing the first genocide of the 21^stcentury’.

He adds.The text furthermore calls on Spain to help ensuring Turkey keeps to it promise to protect and preserve the Armenian cultural heritage on its territory and to havea more active role in facilitating reconciliation between Armenia and Turkey. European history provides ample examples of reconciliation between nations which can serve as a model.

Aragon is an autonomous community in the north-east of Spain, bordering with France. It has a population of 1.2 million people and with a size of 47,719 km² (slightly bigger than Estonia). It is the fifth region in Spain that has recognized the Armenian Genocide, after the Basque Country, Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Navarre.