A regular Cabinet meeting took place, chaired by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. On February 22, 2023, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the government of Armenia, the Eurasian Development Bank and “Lidian Armenia” CJSC, which is about considering the possibility of continuing the preparatory works, construction and furture exploitation of the Amulsar mine. For the effective implementation of the project, the “Lidian Armenia” company has committed to invest in the amount of at least 250 million USD. During the construction, the Lydian Armenia company committed to providing the affected communities with annual financial support in the amount of 7 million dollars for each 12-month period in addition to the environmental tax. Within the framework of the memorandum, the company also undertook to donate 12.5 percent of the shares of the statutory capital of “Lidian Armenia” company to the Armenian government, without the government making monetary investments in the company’s authorized capital, without any obligation on the part of the government. The decision proposes to accept the donation of shares arising from the memorandum. Deputy Minister of Economy Ani Ispiryan noted that according to the memorandum, the Armenian Government will accept 12.5 percent of the common shares with a nominal value of 5,000 AMD issued by “Lidian Armenia” CJSC, i.e. 12,503 shares in total.
Referring to the decision, Nikol Pashinyan reminded that during the last 6 years, they have been constantly dealing with the problems related to the Amulsar mine, and there were many concerns. “When we got the answers to all those questions, we considered it possible to continue the project. It should also be praised that the investors themselves, perhaps following another example, wanted the Armenian people, represented by the government, to participate and have a stake in that project. In this case, the Government of Armenia, that is, the Armenian people, will take possession of 12.5 percent of the shares”.
The government adopted a decision “On making investments in investment funds”, the purpose of which is to ensure the flow of new investments, which will contribute to the introduction of the institution of alternative financing in the economy of Armenia. As a result, it is expected that three new funds will be created, providing opportunities for entrepreneurs to attract alternative financing, while at the same time giving investment funds the opportunity to expand their investment capacity. Beneficiaries of the project are those investment funds that invest in the statutory capital of Armenian companies operating in priority sectors. According to the plan, manufacturing industry, energy and tourism are considered priority sectors. “Investment funds must be managed and have investors in the form of companies that manage $1 billion or more in assets. The project envisages the participation of the government in investment funds, in the event that the investor acquires shares in the amount of at least 250 million AMD. The participation of the government will be 30 percent of the fund’s net assets, but not more than AMD 3 billion,” said Ani Ispiryan.
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Nikol Pashinyan emphasized the importance of the adopted decision and emphasized. “With this, we want to invite and promote the activities of international investment companies in the Republic of Armenia.”
The Government approved the bill “On ratifying the Yerevan Urban Development Investment Program” loan agreement between the Republic of Armenia and the Asian Development Bank signed on November 27, 2023. The amount stipulated in the agreement is a loan amounting to EUR 60,090,000. Within the framework of the agreement, the Isakov-Arshakunyats road section will be built, which will connect several administrative districts of Yerevan, ensuring large traffic flows and reducing traffic jams. Isakov-Arshakunyats road section is the logical continuation of Monte Melkonyan street. The planned works include: construction of the necessary wings of the existing road junction on Isakov Avenue, which will provide access to Noragyugh district, a 269 m long reinforced concrete bridge will be built over the Hrazdan River, a road junction with a tunnel crossing and a roundabout will be built on Arshakunyats Avenue. The length of the main road is 1.9 km. The road mainly consists of 6 lanes, where the width of the road section is 24.5 m.
By the decision of the government, Aram Ghazaryan was appointed governor of Lori.
