Armenia's Deputy Minister of Economy, who chaired ANIF Board of Directors, dismissed

YEREVAN, January 31. /ARKA/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has dismissed today Deputy Minister of Economy Ani Ispiryan.

Earlier, Ispiryan was appointed as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Armenian National Interests Fund (ANIF) replacing Dominique de Villepin.

Edgar Mkrtchyan (Chief of Staff of Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan) and Arman Adilkhanyan (Chief of Staff of Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatryan) were appointed as new members of the ANIF Board.

In 2023, certain problems with reporting, transparency and corporate governance were identified in ANIF. This made the Armenian government change ANIF top managers.

The powers of ANIF Director David Papazyan and Board Chairman Tigran Avinian (currently Mayor of Yerevan) were prematurely terminated.

ANIF's balance sheet and financial report for 2022 were not approved by the government because "the consolidated financial statements for the reporting period do not accurately reflect the financial position of the company and its subsidiaries".

ANIF was established in 2019 with a mandate to consolidate and effectively manage the ownership of Armenian state-owned enterprises, to promote export growth and investments in Armenia by providing co-financing in large-scale projects at their initial stage of development. ANIF’s mission is to support and empower Armenia’s economic development potential. -0-