THE PRIME MINISTER AttENDS TURKEY AND RELI- AN EXHIBITION DEDICATED TO GIOUS FREEDOM page 4 Tigran The greaT‘s 2150Th ANNIVERSARY PAGE 2 ARMENIA HIGHLIGHTS Weekly Digest of the Government of Armenia December 1-6 2010 THEMA President SERZH SARGSYAN PARTICIPATED AT THE 7TH SUMMIT OF THE OSCE “Quote of the week” “Speaking about tigran the great, we mean the commonly Shared dream of the armenian people, the idea of a mighty and powerful homeland which iS forever associ- ated with the name of tigran the great “ tigran SargSyan pm of armenia n december 1, in the capital dent Serzh Sargsyan, who has arrived to oof kazakhstan astana presi- the capital of kazakhstan to participate dent Serzh Sargsyan participated at the oSCE Summit in astana, held to- at the 7th Summit of the oSCE. in day a number of meetings with the heads Upcoming Events the framework of the Summit, the of State and heads of delegations. after president of armenia met with the meeting in the morning with the president president of Slovenia danilo turk. of Slovenia danilo trk, in the afternoon DECEMBER 7: Armenia marks the presidents Sargsyan and turk discussed president Sargsyan met with the presi- day of Earthquake in 1988 issues pertaining to the development of dent of european council herman van the armenian-Slovenian relations, coop- rompuy, the head of the british delega- DECEMBER 9-10: Sitting of the eration of the two countries in the frame- tion deputy prime minister nick clegg CSTO Collective Security Council work of international organizations and and the president of Serbia boris tadic. issues related to the regional security. with the president of european coun- the president of Slovenia recalled cil herman van rompuy Serzh Sargsyan warmly his official visit to armenia last discussed a wide range of issues pertain- october, which according to president ing to the development of the armenia-EU türk, became an important impetus for relations. in particular, the parties spoke the enhancement of bilateral relations, about visa regime facilitation in the frame- for identifying cooperation areas and work of the EU eastern partnership pro- for signing of a number of documents gram, works aimed at the liberalization USEFUL LINKS aimed at the strengthening of coopera- of trade, as well as about possible assist- • www.president.am tion in different areas. using the meeting ance of the EU to the process of reforma- • www.gov.am as a nice opportunity, president turk in- tion currently going on in our country. • www.parliament.am vited president Sargsyan to conduct an Serzh Sargsyan and herman van rompuy • www.mfa.am official visit to Slovenia next year. the discussed also issues related to the nego- • www.armenpress.am invitation was accepted with gratitude. tiations over the armenia-EU association • www.panarmenian.net in astana, president Sargsyan will agreement which commenced last July. • www.matenadaran.am hold other bilateral meetings. presi- December 2, 2010 full story www.president.am ARMENIA HIGHLIGHTS CHRONICA THE PRIME MINISTER AttENDS AN EXHIBITION DEDICATED TO Tigran The greaT‘s 2150Th anniversary HEADLINES OF THE WEEK n december 1, prime minister tigran ohanyan, primate of ararat patriarchal oSargsyan attended the inauguration of an diocese archbishop navasard kchoyan. • DECEMBER 1: 7.1% unem- exhibition in the national picture gallery of the head of government toured the stands ployment rate reported in Jan- armenia, entitled “one work” and dedicated getting acquainted with the works of 84 uary-October 2010 in Armenia to the 2150th anniversa- authors: both pictur- AH ry of tigran the great. esque and sculptural • DECEMBER 1: Aliyev com- actions on the arme- works, as well as plains about Armenia’s “un- nian monarch’s 2150th excavation findings willingness” to establish peace anniversary are held brought in from ti- AH under the premier’s granakert of artsakh. • DECEMBER 2: Catalogue about Tigran high patronage. to- the best exhibit will the Great to be published in Armenia day’s event was at- be awarded var- AH tended by minister dges Surenyants-150 • DECEMBER 3: Shavarsh Kocharyan: of defense Seiran silver medal. fol- Artsakh continues building independ- lowing the ceremony of opening, tigran Sargsyan told the journalists: “marking to- ent state, irrespective of everything day the 2150th anniversary of tigran the great, we seek to reassess the importance of AH his legacy for our people and its history. Speaking about tigran the great, we mean • DECEMBER 4: Weather bureau the commonly shared dream of the armenian people, the idea of a mighty and pow- promises heavy precipitation in winter erful homeland which is forever associated with the name of tigran the great.” AH tigran Sargsyan went on to emphasize that the example set by tigran the great used to inspire • DECEMBER 5: Fishing in Lake armenians in their fight for reinstatement of statehood. “it is such a great potential as has always Sevan banned since December 5 inspired the people of armenia to regain sovereignty, and finally succeeded. in general, while AH looking into tigran the great’s history, we can see hosts of episodes which seem to be actual today.” • DECEMBER 6: Free economic the prime minister emphasized the fact that the site of artsakh’s tigranakert is excavated zones in Armenia can catch in- by armenian experts terest of Russian entrepreneurs December 1, 2010, www.gov.am AH • DECEMBER 6: Araik Abgaryan: THE MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARME- Armenian aviation security high NIA EDWARD NALBANDIAN HAD BILATERAL MEETINGS WITH HIS AH PARTNERS OF SEVERAL COUNTRIES IN ASTANA WB REGIONAL DIRECTOR OF he armenian foreign minister edward nalbandian presented the recent develop- SOUTH CAUCASUS ASAD ALAM: tnalbandian who is in astana with the del- ments in the artsakh (nagorno-karabakh) “Our primary Task is to egation led by the president of the republic settlement process. in this context, the former make armenia’s ecOnOmy of armenia Serzh Sargsyan to attend oSCE prime minister of australia expressed his MORE EFFICIENT AND Summit had a number of bilateral meetings. country’s support to the peace process held cOmpeTiTive” on december 1, the armenian foreign in the frames of the oSCE minsk group. minister met with kevin rudd, the former the next meeting of edward nalbandian was b regional director of South caucasus prime minister and the current foreign af- with micheline calmy-rey, the vice-pres- wasad alam gave an exclusive inter- fairs minister of australia. in the course of ident of Switzerland and head of the Swiss view to “HH”. in response to inquiry “will the meeting, the sides discussed issues re- federal department of foreign affairs. the renewal of money transfers to armenia help lated to the steps undertaken towards the sides had a detailed talk on bilateral relations, securing rehabilitation of armenia’s econ- as well as regional and international issues. omy and the level of incomes of its popula- the armenian foreign minister edward nal- tion?” he said: “money transfers are very im- bandian also took part in the meeting of the portant for armenia. they were endangered foreign ministers’ council of the collective in 2009 because of the global economic cri- Security treaty organization(cSTO) mem- sis. the main part of those transfers comes ber-countries. during the meeting the prepara- from russia. parallel to current rehabilitation tory work and agenda of the Sessions of the of russia’s economy the number of transfers cSTO’s legislative bodies were discussed. to armenia increases though it is still lower the meeting with the israel’s deputy compared to 2008. money transfers promote prime minister moshe ya’alon was also consumption and investments on the part of deepening of bilateral relations and coop- on the agenda of the armenian foreign householders and assist to increase incomes eration in the frameworks of international minister. edward nalbandian and moshe of the householders. money transfers also organizations. they mutually stressed the ya’alon discussed issues related to the fur- secure valuable foreign currency in favor of importance of positive role of the armenian ther development of bilateral relations. balance of payments. but in the post-crisis australian community in development of upon the request of edward nalbandian, world armenia should go too far and try at- cooperation between armenia and australia. moshe ya’alon presented the recent develop- tracting considerable direct foreign invest- upon the request of kevin rudd, edward ments in the middle east settlement process. ments (DFI) and spurring export to secure December 1, 2010 www.mfa.am and preserve higher rate of growth. December 4, 2010 www.hhpress.am 2 AH ARMENIA HIGHLIGHTS RES PUBLICA PROGRAM ON MEASURES TO IMPROVE INDICES OF DOING BUSINESS PLACIDO DOMINGO AWARDED DISCUSSED IN RA GOVERNMENT WITH ARMENIAN NATIONAL AS- SEMBLY MEDAL rmenian prime minister tigran aSargsyan presided over a sitting in the government dedicated to radical changes in the business environment. earlier, mr. Sargsyan instructed all relevant ministries and institutions to submit offers for improvement of the indices of doing business, the ra governmental press service reported. ness environment in the country. according to the prime minister, besides, simplification of tax and the undertaken measures should customs administration and stimu- yield results until april 2011. lation of small and medium busi- armenian first deputy minister of ness were in the focus of the sitting. orld renowned Spanish ten- economy karine minasyan submit- mr. Sargsyan gave instructions to wor placido domingo, cur- ted an amended program of meas- ministries and institutions for imple- rently in yerevan within yerevan ures aimed at improving the busi- mentation of envisaged measures. perspectives festival framework, December 2, 2010 www.panarmenian.net was awarded with armenian na- RA gOvernmenT to allOcaTe AMD 3.5 milliOn fOr naTiOnal Coop- tional assembly (RA NA) medal.