Georgia, Russia to provide a “green zone” for Armenian freight - PM meets with companies’ top executives

YEREVAN, March 30. /ARKA/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan hosted Sunday a group of senior executives from large export and import companies, the press office of the Armenian government reports.

Addressing those present, the prime minister thanked them for continuing their work despite all the difficulties. “During this period we will face the task of coordinating our efforts and possibly facilitate the exports and imports,” he said.

“ I can say that we have been working with our Georgian and Russian partners in recent days and yesterday we came to an agreement that both Georgia and Russia will provide a “green zone” for Armenia-bound EAEU freight, which means that a special corridor will be available through the territory of Georgia and the Upper Lars checkpoint. In the meantime, we will have to work hard in order give effect to the aforementioned agreements. Also, since the Russian government may make quick decisions to impose different restrictions, which in turn can cause some panic in Armenia, it is particularly important for consumers to note that we have already agreed that the proposed restrictions will not affect the EAEU space or at least Armenia.”

Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that the aforementioned arrangement is positive and final. He pointed out that he keeps receiving import-related updates on a daily basis. The prime minister stressed that the country has sufficient stocks of commodities.

“We also need to understand how we can coordinate export and import issues during this period so that the agreements we have had with the political leadership of Russia and Georgia could be implemented properly,” he said.

Then, the businessmen in attendance reported back the problems faced in the current situation due to export and import problems, and came up with suggestions for their solution.

In turn, Minister of Economy Tigran Khachatryan and State Revenue Committee Chairman David Ananyan gave clarifications on the matter at hand.

The prime minister told the minister of economy to develop a mechanism for keeping in close touch with businesses that will help respond as promptly as possible to their problems and find operative solutions.

Considering the foreign exchange and logistics-related bottlenecks, Nikol Pashinyan noted that the government has approved several anti-crisis programs to share the risks faced by the business community through preferential loans, including zero-interest lending.

“Our political will is to do whatever we can to help the business community,” the premier said, stressing the importance of introducing such mechanisms as would enable the public and private sectors to act quickly and effectively in crisis situations.

There were 424 confirmed cases of coronavirus, 30 cured people and three dead patients in Armenia as of March 29. -0--