The Information Channel Felist.Com -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear frends! Arminfo news agency inform 2008-05-05 14:25:00 Statement by Political Coalition of Armenia ArmInfo. Political Coalition of Armenia makes a statement. Thus, the statement says that confirming the commitments to the electors to make reforms in the country and the conformity of the proposals by PACE Resolution 1609 to these reforms and the goals pursued by the Agreement on Political Coalition, as well as confirming the priority of European orientation in the versatile foreign policy of the country and Armenia's commitments to the CE, the coalition states that it intends 'to carry out reforms to fulfill the campaign programs and the tasks envisaged by the coalition agreements, government activity program and PACE Resolution 1609. In particular, these are better involvement of the opposition into the country's political system, considerable promotion of public confidence in election processes, freedom of speech and independence of Media, and full adaptation of the judicial system to European standards'. The given reforms must promote sustainable democratic institutions and ensure supremacy of the law in Armenia, the statement says. 'Assertion of the opposition's rights in conformity with European standards must be followed by specification of political responsibility of all the political forces, freedom of press - definition of the rules of professional ethics and legal responsibilities, rights to assemblies and processions - law abidance, protection of rights and freedoms of other citizens and security of the country', the statement says. The coalition calls up all the political forces to dialogue and effective cooperation for the love of fully-fledged and fast resolving of these tasks. 'In this context we think the president's initiative and setting up of the working group to study suggestions mentioned in PACE Resolution 1609 and coordination of actions for their fulfillment are very important, and we are sorry for refusal of a member to PACE delegation, leader of the Heritage party parliamentary faction Raffi Hovannissian to work in this group', - the statement says. It also says that the political coalition is waiting from the working group for strict actions on fulfillment of the suggestions of the resolution, in particular, on independent investigation of the post-election processes. The statement was signed by four political forces of the coalition: Republican Party of Armenia, Prosperous Armenia party, ARF Dashnaktiutyun and Orinats Yerkir party. Politics 2008-05-05 14:26:00 Meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents may be held within frames of 12th International Energy Forum in Saint Petersburg ArmInfo. "Meeting between the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers will have a character of acquaintance, but we expect good results from this meeting", OSCE MG French Co-chair Bernard Fassier told APA. He said that the meeting, the ministers would hold tomorrow on the eve of 118th session of the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers, would show how the parties were ready to continue the negotiations. "We perceive that both sides intend to develop peace process". He said the co-chairs would not make any different proposals in the meeting. "We will discuss the date of our visit to region and meeting between the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia. There are several proposals for the venue and date of this meeting and one of them is a meeting within the framework of 12th international energy forum in St- Petersburg, Russia on June 6-8. 2008-05-05 14:23:00 Nagorno Karabakh passes hostage to Azerbaijan ArmInfo. NKR Authorities unilaterally passed an Azerbaijani soldier Vusal Eibatov Shirsultan oghli born in 1989 in Azerbaijan to the Azerbaijani party as a display of good will and devotion of Geneva Conventions and under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross. ArmInfo special correspondent to Stepanakert reports, the NKR State Commission for Captives and Missing reports that the hostage was passed at 2:25 local time on May 3 in the area of Aghdam region on the contact-line of NKR and Azerbaijani armed forces. The Azerbaijani serviceman was detained by servicemen of the NKR Defense Army on April 11, 2008, near Yusifjanly village of Aghdam region when rossing the border. The NKR State Commission for Captives and the Missing informed the OSCE and ICRC offices in Nagorno Karabakh of the incident. OSCE and ICRC representatives had visited the hostage for several times and contacted his relatives. 2008-05-05 14:20:00 Armenian political expert proposes adopting American model of state governance ArmInfo. Armenian political expert, Doctor in Political Science Levon Shirinyan proposes adopting the American model of state governance system in Armenia. In response to ArmInfo question at Friday Debate Club, Levon Shirinyan said that once Armenia adopted the model of semi-presidential system of governance from Russian and France that 'were experiencing crisis of governance' . In the meanwhile an accurate semi-presidential system like that in America that has no institution of prime minister and where the power branches balance each other and the powerful executive power operates on the basis of the Constitution and legislation and the market is socially- orientated can much help leading the country from the present domestic-political crisis, Levon Shirinyan said. Interview 2008-05-05 15:47:00 Reduction of prices for Internet-communication should be clearly motivated and not differentiated Since October 1, 2007, ArmenTel Company has been officially deprived of the monopoly for Internet-communication networks in Armenia. However, it did not affect the alignment in the branch, as the Company preserved the telephone network ownership, therefore, an opportunity of rendering DSL-communication. Naturally, it made the Internet-providers operating in the country dependent, as ArmenTel, which preserved the monopoly in fact, did not loose the freedom of optional management of prices for traffic being realized by providers. On April 18, ArmenTel, appearing now under the Beeline trademark, announced of the reduction of prices for Internet-traffic from 400,000 drams to 30 per 1 megabit. However it does not concern the providers, which will be supplied Internet at the previous price. At ArmInfos request, Director General of one of the Armenian leading providers, Arminco Company, Grigory Sagyan commented on the situation. - Mr. Sagyan, how do you treat reduction of prices for Internet-communication? - A cut in prices for Internet is a positive phenomenon. I think that a budget Internet promotes the population integration into the world information network and, thus, contributes to increasing of the general educational and cultural level. However, any fall in prices should be clearly motivated and not differentiated. The present price fall per Megabit/sec from 1.2 mln drams to 30 thsd drams bypassed the providers, that may make it possible to draw some conclusions regarding the plans of the Internet-communication market management in the country. Noteworthy, ArmenTel does not render services at 30,000 drams to another operators but forces them to buy the service at 1.2 mln drams. The matter here concerns not falling in prices but the tariff policy, as a result of fulfillment of which the competitive operators (providers) of ArmenTel are fully withdrawn from the market. - How did the situation originate under which one company was permitted to control the price mechanisms in the telecommunications market of the whole country? - The point is that ArmenTel has got a confidence that if it is not a monopolist, it is enabled to conduct an autonomous price policy. However, a term dominating position in the market is used today instead of the term monopoly, as ArmenTel owns a network of communication, which is led to every apartment it is about 250,000 telephone lines in Yerevan. This dominating position envisages regulation of the cost of services being rendered by network. The regulation today is carried out by two organizations, al least Public Services Regulatory Commission and Economic Competition Protection Commission. - Thus, the monopoly, either legal or factual, does not contribute to development of the telecommunications branch, does it? - This is testified by the examples of the past. ArmenTel preserved the monopoly for cellular communication till 2005, and the users had to pay $200 for telephone cards in the black market to get communication, the quality of which entirely depended on the operators will. Elimination of the monopoly and appearance of a competitive company increased both the quantity and the quality of mobile communication. Let everyone decide how much the parallels with the present situation may be drawn here. Perhaps, it will succeed to withdraw all the competitors from the market within several months due to the price differentiation,. However, just after that we shall face an absolute lawlessness, as it was before the market demonopolization. - Will the appeal to the relevant governmental bodies on market regulation be of help under these conditions? - Under the developed conditions, this is the only possible solution. Thus, we are going to apply to RA Public Services Regulatory Commission the next few days, to consider the created 00situation and make an adequate decision for the healthy market atmosphere. Thank you for the interview Economy 2008-05-05 14:18:00 Unemployment level in Armenia in Jan-Mar, 2008, totaled 6,4% ArmInfo. The level of unemployment in Armenia calculated as relation between the number of economically active population and the number of the registered unemployed, totaled 6.4% in January-March, 2008. According to estimation of the National Statistical Service of Armenia provided to ArmInfo, 89.1 thsd. people were registered by Armenia's employment services by the end of March, 2008, 77,000 of whom - unemployed and 74.7 thsd people were given a status of unemployed. 61.7 thsd (69,2%) of the registered unemployed people were women. Applications for 2077 vacancies were given by employers till late, 1Q. In addition, 1812 citizens succeeded to find a job over the reporting period. The average monthly nominal salary in Armenia totaled 84374 drams or $274 by late March, 2008, having raised by 21,3% per annum. The highest average monthly salary has been fixed in the financial sector, mining, production and electric power distribution, gas, water, in the governmental administration, in the area of transport and communication. Employees of the area of health care and social assurance, trade and public catering have low salary. As of late March, 2008, there were 16,1 thsd unemployed receiving allowance, while the average size of the allowance made up 13338 drams ($43.1). Finance and banks 2008-05-05 14:42:00 Exchange rate of dram against US dollar and EUR ArmInfo Today, the maximum buying rates at commercial banks of Yerevan were 307 drams for 1 dollar, 474drams for 1 EUR and 12,6 drams for 1 Russian ruble. The minimum selling rates stood at 308 drams for 1 dollar, 477 drams for 1 EUR and 13,4 drams for 1 Russian ruble. 2008-05-02 15:56:00 First international exhibition 'Finances. Credits. Insurance and Audit EXPO 2008' held in Yerevan ArmInfo. The first international specialized exhibition "Finances. Credits. Insurance and Audit EXPO 2008" opened at the House of Moscow in Yerevan, Friday. The exhibition will last till May 4. During the opening ceremony, Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia Artur Javadyan highly estimated the organization of this exhibition aimed to raise the society's awareness of range of financial services provided in Armenia. The exhibition will by all means have a positive effect on further development of the Armenian financial system, he stressed. Javadyan added that such activities are an important step towards transparency of the financial sector and protection of consumers' interests. According to him, the CBA attaches much importance to the fact that exhibitions allow consumers to familiar themselves with the wide range of services and products of the financial system, compare and analyze them. Javadyan also pointed out that the CBA set up a department engaged in protection of consumers' interests, the goal of the department is to raise the awareness of consumers, implement educational programs and publish reference information. In his turn, the president of the Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen of Armenia Arsen Kazaryan pointed out that the financial-banking system enjoys the highest level of enterpreneurship in Armenia. "The government program says that Armenia should become the financial center of the region. I hope that we will achieve this goal in the near future," Kazaryan said. 25 Armenian financial-crdit companies are attending the exhibition. They are presenting banking, investing, insurance and other financial services. The objective of the exhibition is to bring together all financial service providers and to familiarize people with their products: banking deposits, consumer, mortgage and other credits, insurance policies, investment fund and trust management schemes. The exhibition has been organized by LOGOS EXPO with the support of the Ministry of Economy of Armenia, the Central Bank of Armenia, the Armenian Development Agency, the Union of Banks of Armenia and the Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen of Armenia. Social 2008-05-05 09:21:00 XII International specialized exhibition 'Mass Media in Belarus' was held in Minsk from April 28 to May 1 ArmInfo. XII International specialized exhibition "Mass Media in Belarus" was held in the Belarusian capital Minsk, in the national exhibition center "Belexpo", from April 28 to May 1, 2008. The event was held by the Ministry of Information under support of the Foreign Ministry, the National State TV and Radio Company of Belarus, Minsk Municipal Executive Committee , the Union of Publishers and Press Distributors, the Belarusian Union of Journalists, "RUP" International Integration Information Center and the Public Press- Press House Center. Over the years of its work, the professional exhibition "Mass Media in Belarus" has become not only an inseparable part of the Belarusian media community's life, but it also acquired a status of the electron and printed Mass Media forum of the international level. Year by year, the exhibition attracts more and more participants both from Belarus and foreign countries, enabling them to get acquainted with the country's information market, new mass media projects, demonstrate their products, establish new creative and business contacts and exchange experience with colleagues. The third Belarusian Information Forum "Mass Media in the Epoch of Globalization. Urgent Aspects", held on April 29-30, has become the central event of the International specialized exhibition "Mass Media in Belarus". 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