In one of the editions of our newspaper we wrote about officials’ talent to escape from answers to certain questions or giving answers which don’t mean anything.
Specifically, we cited a small part from an interview given to a newspaper by the minister of economy, Nerses Yeritsyan. In answer to a question whether the events connected with Bjni company don’t affect Armenia’s economy Yeritsyan said the following: “I think that Mr. Sukiasyan has made efforts to save his brand too. The brand is his property.” In answer to another question what the efforts are and whether the minister knows anything he said, “He has registered, it is his property.” Tell you frankly we cited this part to bring a great example how officials can escape from answering to questions. However, as it turned out later, there was other important information in the minister’s speech, which was not discussed by him so long.
At 5:19p.m. the Justice ministry’s Department on Mandatory Fulfillment of Juridical Acts (MFJA) started an auction to sell the property and property rights of Bjni Mineral Water Company. They said that they had not received any information from the North Civic Court on declaring the company bankrupt, thus they could sell it in auction. The opening bid was AMD5 billion. The properties subject to auction are the companies’ real estate, tubes (7.7 kilometers) and non-material properties, including Bjni and Noy brands. Even though the brands were written in the last line of the list, these are the most valuable properties of the company due to their goodwill because these brands are famous both in Armenia and overseas. Thus, when people say that some oligarch has “earmarked” Bjni, it doesn’t mean the properties of the company, but the goodwill and brand of the company. Brands are not a present and brands are developed during many years and due to hard work, in this case due to the hard work of the Sukiasyans. When a brand becomes famous, it stops being a brand only and due to its goodwill it becomes popular and brings more income. If you want to punish someone strictly, you can take someone’s company’s brand and give it to an oligarch or businessman who doesn’t understand in business anything than importing cheap goods and selling to people at high prices. This is the only way that makes people be satisfied with punishment of others.