The Government of the Republic of Armenia

Prime Minister Tigran Ssrgsyan received the First Vice-Prime minister of Russia Viktor Zubkov. The parties discussed a number of issues related to the bilateral economic cooperation.
Then Tigran Sargsyan and Viktor Zubkov met the reporters at the RA Government press center and made announcements. Bellow is the full transcript of the announcements.

RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan: First of all I would like to thank our partners for accepting our invitation and for the opportunity to discuss issues of mutual interest. Taking the advantage of the opportunity that Mr. Zubkov is in Armenia, we also discussed issues related to the development of agriculture, in particular, cooperation in the acquisition of agricultural machinery and seed, as well as modernization of agricultural centers. We made some arrangements for mutual visits and establishment of joint ventures. We can say that thanks to this meeting, we will have several new projects in the coming months. It also refers to the leasing company and the opportunities of expanding the activities of the Agricultural Bank of Republic of Armenia.
I want to express gratitude to our Russian partners for the joint work. We agreed on the main directions of cooperation, first of all, in the field of agriculture. We need the technical assistance and support of our Russian partners in the areas of animal breeding and seed growing, supply of agricultural equipment and machinery. Issues related to the legislative field were also discussed, which create favorable conditions for the Russian leasing company to launch activities in Armenia. We agreed that in the coming months our working groups will study these issues thoroughly, and the Armenian delegation will leave for Moscow, where final agreements will be adopted regarding today’s arrangements.

First Vice-Prime minister of Russia Viktor Zubkov: Dear Mr. Sargsyan, dear partners, we had really productive negotiations about the Russian-Armenian trade-economic cooperation. Yesterday we had a meeting with the RA president Serj Sargsyan during which all the issues related to our cooperation were discussed.
Today we discussed a number of issues related to the further promotion of bilateral trade and economic cooperation with RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan and RF Transport Minister Igor Levitin. It should be noted that the trade circulation has increased by almost 16% compared to the previous year, amounting to 1 billion USD. This is the best index of the last four years. However, yesterday and today we reported that there are much more opportunities for the trade-economic cooperation and, obviously, we should not be limited to 1 billion USD.
We have objectively analyzed the earlier agreements, and, as RA Prime Minister noted, singled out new directions of cooperation in agro-industrial complex. Indeed, Russia has developed in many directions in the last 5 years; many investment projects have been implemented, good results were recorded in wheat production and only this year we produced 94 million tons of wheat. For the first time this year we have exported 27 million tons of wheat. That is why there is a great desire to cooperate with Armenia. We outlined the most important directions of cooperation, which relate to the population of Armenia, first of all, relating to agriculture and seed growing.
Earlier, we agreed that I would send the president of ‘Rosselkhozbank’ to Armenia, who is well aware of all the discussed matters. He will hold negotiations with the RA Minister of Agriculture in Yerevan. We noted that we can assist in the implementation of projects in the poultry field. Such projects have been implemented widely in Russia; they have high productivity and assure large income. We think of establishing ‘Rosselkhozbank’ subsidiary in Armenia, which currently has a good credit portfolio. It is one of the most powerful banks of Russia. We think that a subsidiary of ‘Rosagroleasing’ should also be established in Armenia, which is also one of the Russian leading companies and has a charter capital of 80 billion rubles. It operates extensively throughout Russia, providing modern agricultural technological services.
We have an agreement with the RA Prime Minister to gather a joint working group consisting of representatives of Armenia and Russia in Moscow and to present proposals referring the cooperation, which will make the basis for the final decisions. We have a great desire to work in this direction and we see good prospects.
There is also a great potential for cooperation in cultural and humanitarian spheres. We think that the next step should be the establishment of a branch of Moscow State University in Yerevan.
Development works for this project have already been implemented and they will be presented at the 14th sitting of Russian-Armenian intergovernmental economic commission, which will take place in the second half of this year.
Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to the RA president Serj Sargsyan, RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan for the warm welcome and the constructive dialogue.