Prime-minister: moving Armenian Central Bank to Dilijan to attract serious investments

YEREVAN, October 22. /ARKA/. Moving the Central Bank of Armenia to Dilijan where an international financial school is to be built will help attract investments into the city, Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said, quoted by the government press service.

This radical decision was maid to enable serious financial investments in the city and to develop the infrastructure, Sargsyan said at the meeting of Trustees' Board of the International Financial School.

According to Sargsyan, implementation of the project will help solve various problems.

Joint efforts can bring Dilijan to a completely new level over the next five years and make it an up-to-standard popular destination for tourists.

The first stage including construction of the central and sports building of the school, sports grounds, two dormitories, a medical office, a workshop and a multifunctional center, is to be completed in September 2014. During the second stage to be completed in 2016 two additional dormitories for students and the faculty, as well as a theatre are to be built.

It is planned to transfer about 250-300 employees of the Central Bank to Dilijan. In particular, the whole staff of the research department is to be transfered to Dilijan. External reserves department and IT may be transferred as well. The educational center is built under the project on trasnformation of Dilijan into a regional financial center.

The international school is intended for 13-18-year old pupils. A total of 650 pupils can be enrolled and 60 teachers can be employed in the school. The graduates will receive an international bachelor's degree.

Under the campus construction project, not only educational, administrative and dwelling building, but also creative centers, decorative and fruit gardens are to be built.

The selection of teachers is currently underway; some will be invited from abroad.

The construction of the international school is foreseen under the Law about Education.

On December 222 Armenian Parliament adopted amendments to the country’s Law about General Education and the Law about Language. Under the new law, eleven similar schools are to be founded in the country, nine of them within government-private sector cooperation; the remaining two schools will be completely private. -0-