Armenia’s government to foster Carrefour entrance to Armenian market

YEREVAN, February 7. /ARKA/. The government of Armenia is set to make  all the necessary efforts to see Carrefour hypermarket at Armenian market, PM Tigran Sargsyan told reporters on Wednesday.

“I had a meeting with Carrefour representatives, and we discussed all the issues related to the entrance of the network to Armenia and its normal operation here. Armenia is quite interested in providing people with Carrefour’s services,” he said.

Carrefour entrance may have many favorable factors for the republic’s economy as it can activate competition, create new infrastructure, increase purchase of  agricultural products, and boost exports of Armenian goods, according to him.

“That is why Carrefour must be opened in Armenia for sure, and we offered our assistance to the company to foster its entrance to our market,” he added.

As to the reports of some media stating that Russian businessman and Yerevan’s Dalma Garden Mall owner Samvel Karapetyan suspended agreement with the company, Sargsyan said that as the company representatives had clarified the sided had signed a memorandum on intentions rather than an agreement, and some disputes had arisen there. 

PM added it referred to the two private companies only, and they are the ones to work together and reach a compromise. 

Zhamanak newspaper (Time) reported earlier  referring to its own sources that Samvel Karapetyan, who owns «Dalma Garden Mall» in Yerevan, suspended the agreement with Carrefoure as Samvel Alexanyan, who imports the essentials to Armenia, took pretty active steps to impede the entrance of the hypermarket in the republic which could sink his own business. 

Carrefour SA French company, the world second largest retail network after American Wal-Mart, was founded in 1957 in eastern France. 

Nowadays the company owns 15,100 stores under different brands in Europe, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa and Asia. The total personnel of the company exceeds 400,000 people.

The net profit of  Carrefour Group stood at 371 million euros in 2011.  -0-