Author: Torgomian Varazdat

RESULTS OF "THE BEST INFORMATIONAL BOOKLET 2009" COMPETITION SUMMARIZED
Nvard Davtyan

"Radiolur"
05.06.2009 17:24

On June 5 the Central Bank summarized the results of "The Best
Informational Booklet 2009" competition. The aim of the competition was
to promote the transparency of the financial market and to encourage
financial organizations to provide full and comprehensible information
to their clients.

As it was stated by the public relations department of the Central
Bank, this year the process of booklet appraisal was carried out
not only by the CBA staff, but also by the representatives of NGO’s
defending the rights of consumers, associations of banks, credit
organizations and insurance companies, and ARKA news agency.

According to Vakhtang Abrahamyan, member of the Central Bank Board,
such arrangements contribute to the rise of trust in the protection
of consumer rights in the financial system and the financial market.

ARMENIA REPRESENTED BY DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER AT EASTERN PARTNERSHIP MEETING ON JUNE 5

ArmInfo
2009-06-05 15:08:00

ArmInfo. Deputy Foreign Minister Karine Ghazinyan represents Armenia
at the meeting on multilateral cooperation of Eastern Partnership
in Brussels today on June 5, Tigran Balayan, Head of the Armenian
Foreign Ministry press-service department for media, told ArmInfo.

It is the first meeting after the official start of the project on
May 7 in Prague. The key topics on the agenda of today’s meeting
are democratization, effective management and stability. The Eastern
Partnership (EaP) is a project which was initiated by the European
Union (EU). It was presented by the foreign minister of Poland with
assistance from Sweden at a the EU’s General Affairs and External
Relations Council in Brussels on 26 May 2008.

The Eastern Partnership was inaugurated in Prague on 7 May 2009. Its
geographical scope is to consist of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia,
Moldova and Ukraine.

TURKEY TO OPEN MORE DIFFICULT CHAPTERS IN ITS EU PROCESS

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
04.06.2009

/PanARMENIA N.Net/ "We have opened nearly all the easy chapters in EU
process. Now, the remaining chapters require important benchmarks
that could cause trouble at home and in Europe," Egemen Baðýþ,
Turkey’s state minister and chief negotiator in EU process, said.

To open the chapter on social policies, the law on trade unions must
be adopted, the Turkish official said, adding that the same goes for
the chapter on the environment and the laws and regulations on waste
treatment. "We are planning to open the chapter on the environment
during the Swedish presidency," Bagis noted.

The negotiations between Turkey and the EU started in 2005, but so
far, only 10 chapters out of 35 have been opened, mostly because
of the Cyprus problem and France’s opposition to Turkey’s full
membership. Eight chapters were suspended because Turkey rejects to
open its ports and airports to Cyprus.

"For us, our reform process is much more important than the number
of opened chapters. If we focus too much on the chapters, then we’ll
let Brussels get behind the wheel, but if we are concentrated on
reforms, then the control will be in Parliament," Hurriyet quotes
Bagis as saying.

‘SHEN-CONCERN’ CARRIES OUT FIRST COUPON PAYMENTS OF ITS BONDS

ArmInfo
2009-06-03 13:40:00

ArmInfo. On June 2, ‘Shen Concern’ CJSC carried out the first coupon
payments of its bonds in a volume of 32.9 mln drams of the fourth-issue
corporate bonds, Director General of ‘Capital Assets Management’
Investment Company Tigran Karapetyan told ArmInfo. Along with it,
Financial Director of ‘Shen Concern’ CJSC Armen Balasanyan said the
coupon payments were received by 4 legal entities, in particular,
‘Converse Bank’, ‘INECOBANK’, Armenian PostBank and ‘Capital Assets
Management’.

To note, the coupon payments of ‘Shen Concern’ are carried out once per
half year, and the next payment has been envisaged on December 2, 2009.

To recall, the fourth issue of bonds of ‘Shen Concern’ CJSC in a volume
of 600 mln drams (at par value), with 1095-day repayment period and 11%
coupon yield per year has been itemized in the in the Exchange list
â~@~Zbond since January 19, 2009. According to the data of NASDAQ
OMX Armenia, transactions at the Exchange over the whole period of
circulation of the fourth-issue debt securities of "Shen Concern"
CJSC made up 1.1 bln drams. Total of 35 transactions with the Company
binds have been carried out since January 19, 2009 to June 2 inclusive,
at the average weighted profitability of 10,996% per annum.

To note, ‘Shen Concern’ CJSC has been founded in 1995 and it is an
assignee of the state enterprise ArmResourceImpex. At present, the
company is mainly engaged in production and realization of building
materials.

ARF CANDIDATE CLAIMS "NO COMMENT"
Astghik Khachatryan

yun-4/
2009/06/01 | 15:13

Important Society

With a mere 4.65% share of yesterday’s election vote, the ARF failed
to hit the 7% threshold for city council representation.

When we tried to get ARF candidate Artzvik Minasyan to comment
on yesterday’s vote results he responded with "no comment". He
said that the ARF’s Supreme Council would issue a statement today

OPPOSITION HOLDS MEETING NEAR MATENADARAN

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
01.06.2009 20:19 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today, about 07:00 p.m., Armenian National Congress
(ANC) started a meeting in Yerevan, with the participation of around
5 thousand people. In his speech delivered near Matenadaran institute
of ancient manuscripts, ANC coordinator Levon Zourabyan announced
that Yerevan would today be full of flags had the victory been
real. "Armenian authorities have managed to create a totalitarian
system of vote count. The possess accurate data on the persons selling
their votes and the prices offered. The entire state-government system
has one objective – to falsify elections," he said.

Zourabyan also said their party had been warned against interfering
in elections. But ANC finds elections to be the only way for making
people’s voice heard by political forces. "A leading political force
should always conduct its battle while being close to people. We
have considerable achievements; we were able make an advance steps
towards elaborating election mechanisms, and we’ll need that in future"
Zourabyan added. Opposition activist believes authorities have this
time managed to impose their rules on ANC. Anyway, he expressed
confidence of winning the final battle.

MG OSCE CO-CHAIRS ARRIVED IN YEREVAN

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
28.05.2009 16:00 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ MG OSCE Co-Chairs on NKR conflict settlement arrived
in Yerevan, Head of RA MFA Press Service Department Tigran Balayan
told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter, refraining from giving any details
on MG OSCE Co-Chairs visit. MG OSCE mediators Matthew Bryza (US),
Bernard Fassier (France) and Yuri Merzlyakov (Russia) intended to
visit Stepanakert, yet bad weather prevented them from visiting. It’s
supposed that the visit aims at preparation of RA and Azerbaijan
Presidents’ next meeting in St. Petersburg.

ARMENIA STARTS ELECTRICITY EXPORT TO IRAN NEXT MONTH

Moj News Agency, Iran
May 25, 2009 Monday

Armenia next month starts power delivery to Iran in return
for the Islamic Republic`s gas, Armenian Energy Minister Armen
Movsisyan. Announcing that Iran`s gas export to Armenia is carried
out under "gas for electricity" formula, Movsisyan added that Tehran
has already launched gas pump to Iran-Armenia pipeline and Yerevan
will also start electricity delivery next month.

CROATIA PRESIDENT WAS GRANTED YSU HONORABLE DOCTOR TITLE

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
22.05.2009 18:24 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On May 22, within the framework of his visit to
Armenia, Croatia President Stjepan Mesic met students and professors
of Yerevan State University.

Welcoming high ranking guest, Head of YSU Aram Simonyan noted that
Croatian President’s visit to Armenia is a step towards development of
collaboration between the countries in different spheres, specifically,
science and education.

By the decision of YSU Scientific Council, Croatia President was
granted YSU Honorable Doctor title and University’s gold medal.

In his statement Croatian President presented a short history of his
country and described external policy priorities.

Dwelling on the possibility of strengthening economic collaboration
between Armenia and Croatia, Stjepan Mesic noted there’s a
serious potential in Armenian-Croatian relations which needs to be
developed. He also emphasized the importance of bilateral meetings
and visits between the countries, which will enable creation of
closer ties.

He gave high assessment to the intention of Armenian parliamentarians
to form Armenian- Croatian Parliamentary Friendship Group, and
expressed a hope that Croatian MPs will follow their Armenian
colleague’s example.

NAGORNO KARABAKH REPUBLIC IMPROVES ITS LEGISLATURE

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
22.05.2009 18:41 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On 22 May President of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic
Bako Sahakyan signed the law on Honorary Titles of the NKR, laws on
introducing changes and amendments to the laws on the Statute of the
National Assembly, on obligatory social insurance in connection with
temporary inability to work, as well as on introducing changes and
amendment to the NKR law on procurement, on introducing changes to
the NKR Electoral Code, Central Information Department of the NKR
President’s office reports.