“As long as other branches of our country’s economy is still collapsed, a part of it is just developing, Armenia, wittingly or unwittingly, even to the detriment of the environment, or even to the detriment of the people’s health, will continue developing and maintaining the mining industry,” – such opinion was made by Chairman of Republican Union of Employers of Armenia Gagik Makaryan, answering the question of Aravot.am whether it is possible to go by the path of green economy with today’s aggressive paces of mining industry. Mr. Makaryan observed that it is the time for the government to start thinking about the development of other economic sectors that would be a counterbalance to the mining industry. “The economy must be diversified in all branches. In other words, even if the industry volume remains the same in the total unit weight, the other sectors develop and mining industry decreases. If the unit weight of this falls, it would be also easier to make a political decision.” To the question of Aravot.am as to which branches may be a counterbalance to the mining industry, Mr. Makaryan brought the example of food processing. “Today, wine factories are built, modernized; brandy production, fruit vodkas, quite serious types of productions have been started to develop, fresh fruit-vegetables. I think if all this together is about $ 200 million, this number can be doubled in 2-3 years. If you add a few factories, plantations be provided, subsidizing processors, and plantation cultivators, the volume will grow significantly. Russian and European markets like the Armenian food, and also quotas need to be obtained in those markets.” To our question as to why all of this is not done now, maybe it is more advantageous to the Government for the investor to come and make the investments in mining industry, pay respective taxes to the state budget, rather than for the government spending money for the development of branches counterbalancing this sector, Mr. Makaryan said. “Now they approach negligently, the subsidies are not much, bank provide credit with high interest rates, the business environment is quite poor, the issues of certification for export are not regulated, and the government has not put all its leverages in this work completely, it should devote to the work at large. And it is that the state receives the greatest benefit from the mining industry, mining industry is mainly export-oriented, and in this case the VAT is returned for the part, it just provides employment, and pays certain taxes, but the losses, since they become obvious in the course of years, vigilance has become less.”
Today, during the press conference on “Is it possible to transform the economy of Armenia to a “green” one?” held in “EcoLur” press club, Gagik Makaryan said that if Armenia takes the path of green economy, the share of mining industry in GDP should be reduced. To the question whether the mining industry is expanding every year, but not much changes is noticed in the GDP of this sector, Mr. Makaryan said, “As of 2012, a new category of metals mining has not increased, it has remained at the existing level. The fact that they are doubled, is not so, the price for metals in the international market has fallen, even though the volumes have increased, the prices in the market are dropped.” Details in the video
To the question that, on the one hand, they are trying to develop tourism, on the other hand, new mines are operated, Mr. Makaryan opined that there is no adequate counterbalance to the mining industry, and brought an interesting example: “1.5 years ago, the Gold factory opened in Stepanavan was shut down very soon because the demand for it was received from the Government of Georgia claiming that the factory in Stepanavan harms the environment of the region of their country.
Nelly Babayan
