You can rarely read anything about the Armenian economical life in foreign press. The publication of the Russian version of “Forbes” journal was one of these rare publications. It should be analyzed. At least by doing that we can find out information about the reputation of our economy outside our country. Of course, if we even have a reputation abroad. The author of “Forbes” doesn’t hide that; before visiting Armenia he was interested whether there was life in Armenia or not. Just like back in the 60s when space navigation scientists were interested whether there was life on Mars or not. So at least Russians got a chance to learn that there is both life and economy in Armenia. What’s more, there are also rich people here. Till now there has been no attempt to present the richest people of Armenia and classify them. “Forbes” is specialized in this and they classified (or tried to do so) our richest people. In Armenia the first five richest people are the following: Mikhail Baghdasarov, Gagik Tsarukyan, Khachatur Sukiasyan, Valeri Mejlumyan, Gevorg Nersisyan. The first three people are well-known in Armenia. Valeri Mejlumyan is not well known because his businesses are not situated in the capital. The property of “Valex Group” is the copper-molybdenum factory of Alaverdi city. Gevorg Nersisyan’s business is based in Moscow and is called “Central Partnership”. It is interesting how they classified our internal business life and the first three people and according to what kind of criteria. First of all, the following sentence is very interesting: “Tsarukyan is a typical Armenian businessman. At first he was elected a member of the National Assembly. And on the other hand he does anything that can bring profit”. It’s true that in Armenia businessmen try to occupy as much space in the economy so they can bring as much profit as they can. In Armenia businessmen that have financial background as a rule try to be involved in politics at the same time. For this purpose they found political parties and become NA members. Definitely this is what having big money in a small country does. The next interesting and typical thing is the following: ““Mika Limited” company is still the one regulating petroleum in Armenia, even more, both whole sale and retail”. This is also a way how money flows in an economy where there are no more fields to enlarge businesses. This is the reason why the businessman also trade with small quantities, thus taking these businesses from small and medium business fields.
I may exaggerate a little when I speak about the businessmen who want to have political powers to back them and have personal contacts. Hardly Armenia can ever step into an era of reformation of property through political methods (revolutionary). As for businessmen, they have an example of economical stability (“SIL group”). Actually Khachatur Sukiasyan has been involved in the list of the richest Armenians both before 1998 and after it. This is the reason why according to “Forbes” Khachatur Sukiasyan is the most experienced businessman of Armenia.
The Russian journalist could also see the presence of the Diaspora in Armenia, both business related and other types of presence. I mean both the investments for the purpose of getting income and philanthropic activities.
This publication of “Forbes” magazine is also very interesting due to the fact that it is not politicized and is written in a simple language that is easy to understand. Maybe the reason is that our businessmen treated foreign journalists well. No businessmen hid his hobbies and negative sides. For instance Gagik Tsarukyan likes sports, but we knew this before too. But he also told the Russian journalist that he has his own zoo. As for Mika Baghdasarov, he wants to invest 20 million dollars and build a soccer stadium, because his team was impressed with the luxurious conditions of the German field so much that they let the other team score four goals. As for Khachatur Sukiasyan, he was happy to tell journalists what kind of new management technologies they had invested in their “Bjni” spring water producing company. As for Valeri Mejlumyan, when he visited his parents in Armenia, he saw that the biggest factory of their city didn’t operate and was bankrupted. So he decided to buy it and make it work.
The interesting thing is that foreigners have the same wrong picture about our economy as we have (or many of us). Do you remember the announcements that our economy could survive only by selling apricot, water and brandy? Now we don’t rely on this only. So it is good to read in foreign press that: “The main factor for the development of the economy of this country is neither cement, nor brandy and nor foreign investments, but Armenians, they are the main guarantee for their economy development”. This is what is missing in Armenia, all of us don’t realize the meaning of this, which often brings to some results.