YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan)–Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan disclosed on Friday, December 25, that the Armenian Government is in the middle of negotiations with Russia on a new $100 million loan designed to be used exclusively for the development of the jewelry business in Armenia.
If the deal goes through, the multi-million dollar loan will assist Armenia in the opening of a diamond exchange that will be used to supply Russian diamonds to local jewelry factories.
“If the negotiations are successful and we manage to come to an agreement with Russia-based AlRosa company, then the attracted loan will be used to develop the diamond cutting sector and to establish a modern diamond-exchange in order to provide Armenian companies with Russian raw material,” the prime minister said.
According to Sargsyan, Armenia’s private sector, whose representatives are involved in negotiations on the loan, will bear the main burden of the loan repayment. At the same time he said that there are no plans to receive other credit resources from Russia.
Armenia has already received a $500 million stabilization loan from Russia to fund reconstruction projects in the earthquake-recovery zone of Gyumri, the crediting of small and medium business, and the establishment of a stabilization fund for anti-crisis measures.
I don’t know when our “Spatula” will hit the bottom of the “Pot”; this is a Farsi saying for when you ran out of something; that’s how those International financial organizations take care of the third world countries; loan after loan after loan; and then Gulp…..
Armenia has seen many times how it’s oligarch dominated (in this case Kocharian) private sector bears the main burden of Government backed loan repayments. The private sector does NOT repay the loans to the Government, so the regime receives yet another government handout and Armenia’s under-privileged again have to ‘put up and shut up’.