“It is possible that the gas prices will come down, that is, what it is now, it will not go below that, and as for the North-South highway, there is a misunderstanding both to Russian readers and to us, because everybody understands clearly that the Armenia transport capabilities can be used only when that transportation blockade in Armenia disappears, in other words, when the Karabakh issue is resolved”,- said the ANC Economic and Environmental Affairs Committee Chairman Vahagn Khachatryan, today, in the interview with “ARKA” news agency, commenting at the request of Aravot.am on predictions of the Director of the Centre for Integration Studies at the Eurasian Development Bank Evgeny Vinokurov. Evgeny Vinokurov specifically noted that the decision on joining the Customs Union will enable to drop the gas price in 30 per cent, will bring Armenia out of the transportation deadlock, and will ensure rather flexible and secure market access for realization of products of high value added.
As interpreted by Mr. Khachatryan, all these are not professional assessments, but political speculations. “Moreover, it is not clear what the Customs Union is, what documents they represent, no one knows yet. This process is still underway since 2010, but it is not finally formulated as to what documentation should be changed in Armenia, what normative legal acts shall be adopted, and so on.”The economist Khachatryan believes that “But there are risks in a bad sense as a small state, as an opportunity of developing monopoly, the thing that we have, these possibilities will increase after the Customs Union, there will be problems with competition, even without it there was no competition in Armenia, it won’t be still. There might be problems purely in terms of the prospects of Armenia’s domestic market, because our products are not competitive in foreign markets, especially if we enter the Customs Union. It is clear for me that this is a political document, and not economic.”
Mr. Khachatryan believes, “Vinokurov has made only assumptions. It is just a definition of the terminology used in economics. You may have the possibility in another countries, too. In the framework of the EU Association Agreement or a Free Trade Agreement you would get, even more, because there is a bigger market over there, the standards are higher with regard to competitiveness, competition and technology, if they want to make such a comparison.” Mr. Khachatryan finds that the most important issue here is the opportunity to purchase energy carriers in more affordable price. “It’s very real today. We have felt it on our own back when the prices on gas and electricity were raised since June 1. What happened needs to accept as a regular fiasco for current authorities, it is a result of big talk when it is clear to everyone that what happened must have happened.”
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