This year the production capacity of jewelry and gold production has also gone down in Armenia. During these 10 months, the mentioned fields have fallen down by 19,7 and 17,6 % accordingly compared to the same period of the previous year. In parallel to that, the number of job spots was reduced by 300 vacancies. According to head of jewelry and gold production department of the RA Ministry of Trade and Economic Development, Gagik Mkrtchyan, this fall is conditioned by crisis in the international gold market, which started two years ago. The next reason of this fall is the fall of the USD exchange rate. “As a result of that, the net prices of production have grown and thus their competitiveness and salaries in this field have fallen”, says Gagik Mkrtchyan. This means that the Armenian specialists that are experienced in diamond reproduction have to leave for other countries such as Canada, Namibia, etc. Mr. Mkrtcdhyan says that this fall is also due to the fact that the diamond import capacity from Russia has been cut down too. Armenia hasn’t imported much diamond from Russia in spite of the fact that these two countries have a governmental agreement on importing diamond. The reason is the fact that Russia has fixed its own prices for diamond in the markets, thus the market prices have grown and don’t fit with Armenia’s demand. 54,6% of the raw materials was imported from Israel, 41% – from Belgium and only 3% from Russia. Mr. Mkrtchyan says that at the end of November Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan will visit Moscow, where they will discuss the issue of activating the cooperation with Armenian companies. In spite of the fall in the mentioned fields the mining production capacity is growing in Armenia. This information was confirmed by head of the mining department of the mentioned ministry, Arthur Ashughyan. For instance, the mining fields that are used for construction purposes have grown by 10%. Nevertheless, this growth does not correspond to the growth in construction this year, which covers 40%. Mr. Ashughyan does not agree with the assumption that the other 30% of the field is shady and is not taxed. In addition, the mining and importing business of molybdenum is also doing well.
