Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan chaired a consultative meeting to discuss the report on the activities of the Armenian National Interests Fund (ANIF).
“The Fund was created as something novel in our reality and a unique model of public-private sector partnership. Ever since, we have been referring to this topic from time to time to see how effective and applicable this model is. Today we will discuss another report on ANIF activities. The Fund was created in May 2019, and we have to discuss the results of its two years’ work,” Nikol Pashinyan said at the beginning of the meeting.
ANIF Executive Director David Papazyan presented the results of the operations carried out by the Fund, the opportunities for ensuring synergy between the public and private sectors in accordance with the logic of Armenia’s transformation strategy by 2050, as well as the process of attracting large-scale investments. In particular, the program of construction of Ayg-1 photovoltaic solar station with a capacity of 200 MW in cooperation with Masdar is being implemented. The program is estimated at USD174 million. Mr. Papazyan expressed confidence that this large-scale project will help expand production capacities and bring down the applicable electricity tariffs. Efforts are underway to implement new projects in the energy sphere.
The ANIF Executive Director recalled that a few days ago an agreement was signed with Air Arabia to create a national low-cost air carrier. The carrier will operate flights to the Russian Federation, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, offering citizens quality services at the lowest possible rates. Over the next 5 years the airline will bring 15 planes to Yerevan Zvartnots airport.
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The Fund concluded several investment deals with local companies in the period under review, contributing thereby to the development and expansion of their activities. Programs are being implemented in the areas of renewable energy, agriculture, healthcare, services and tourism.
The next vector of ANIF activities is to provide support to water and waste management systems. Several projects envisaged in these areas were presented during the meeting. A number of proposals and recommendations were voiced during the exchange of views that followed. The speakers stressed the need to ensure maximum transparency and accountability in ANIF operations, attract new investments and effectively implement the ongoing projects.