Friday, 25 September 2009
“Rosiyskaya Gazeta”
The eleventh session of the Armenian-Russian intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation will be held this Friday in Yaroslavl. The Armenian delegation is headed by Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan who answered the questions of Rosiyskaya Gazeta newspaper in anticipation of the session.
RG: What does the agenda of the forthcoming session of the intergovernmental commission look like?
Sargsyan: The agenda features eight items. I would highlight the current status and the prospects of trade and economic relations, as well as the possibilities for commissioning those enterprises handed over to Russia against interstate debt. Also, we are set to look at the legal framework applicable between the two countries and other aspects of multifaceted interaction. We are sure to discuss the possibility of taking joint action against global crisis-related economic phenomena.
RG: What impact did the crisis have on Armenia?
Sargsyan: After several years of a double-digit economic growth, the GDP fell by 18.4% in the first eight months of this year as compared to the same period of 2008. While considerably high, this figure is less than what we had expected. Besides, downward trends have slowed down considerably recently. Construction proved to be the hardest-hit sector, remittances from abroad inclusive of Russia fell by over one third. By the way, several investors from Russia were implementing their own projects in Armenia as the crisis approached Armenia. The crisis and its local implications evidenced that Armenia’s economy was closely tied up with the global one. Besides, the government has developed a program of action that I would rather call “a code of anti-cyclic measures” implying that at any given point of time we are to take such steps as may be needed to deal with a specific cycle of emergency situation in the economy. Such measures may imply increased public spending, support for the SME and system-building enterprises and so on. Today it can be stated reasonably that the downturn has practically reached its apogee, and we are in for the stabilization cycle.
RG: However, the global economy teaches us that crises are wont to recur from time to time.
Sargsyan: You are right, and this circumstance causes the government to look at strategic tasks in addition to the tactical ones. For a small country with little population and poor natural resources it seems to be crucial to develop a system which might secure a place of its own on the international arena. I do believe that the future of Armenia should be built on the sidelines of knowledge-extensive activities, such as high technologies, education, public health services, highly technological and energy-saving industries. In principle, this is a separate topic for a “big” talk. Therefore, I would only notice that the government is just trying to invest in the aforementioned sectors.
RG: What is your vision of the future of the Commonwealth of Independent States? Do you think it possible to establish a common economic space within the CIS? What is Armenia’s approach to a similar scenario?
Sargsyan: Processes like this may occur within the framework of CIS. In particular, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan have concluded a customs union. Armenia is involved as observer. As I have already noticed, our country is poor in natural resources: we do not have oil and some gas. This is influencing the prices. Besides, there are no common borders both with Russia and the other States of the Customs Union. At the same time, Armenia is a WTO member, while the aforementioned countries are not part of this organization. All this makes us be more active by developing first of all multilateral rather than bilateral economic ties and contacts within the CIS frameworks. Russia continues to be our chief partner. Despite the existing objective barriers, trade turnover keeps growing. We cannot rest on our oars by keeping to this even very high level. Bilateral cooperation has a huge potential. It became obvious in recent years as we started to expand ties and exchanges at the regional level. And today we do everything to stimulate the positive trends in this area of mutual relations.
RG: It is a common opinion in Armenia that after normalization of Armenia-Turkey relations the overall economic pattern will change in South Caucasus positively affecting economic ties with Russia?
Sargsyan: It is abnormal to have closed borders between neighboring countries in the 21st century. First of all, the opening of borders will create a qualitatively new atmosphere in terms of mutual of trust. The restoration of trust between Yerevan and Ankara is a challenge. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan had enough courage to address this problem. The establishment of good-neighborly relationship with Turkey is supposed to provide a suitable platform for our strategic partners in the face of Russia which has essential weight and strong positions in our region.
As a matter of fact, Russian-Armenian ties are not restricted to economic exchanges only. Indeed, the humanitarian aspect of our cooperation is as much important as the strategic one. Russia acts as our strategic partner with which we collaborate in the frameworks of the ODKB. We in Armenia remember that we have a common past with Russia. Therefore, it is up to the peoples of our two countries to decide what the shared future will be like, which is bright enough in our eyes.
