The American Chamber of Commerce’s (“AmCham”) Armenian branch held its 5th regional conference on October 15-16 at the “Armenia-Marriot” hotel. The conference, with the title “General Future”, was organized with the purpose of creating a dialog between the businesses of participating countries (Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Turkey, etc) and improving relations between the “AmCham” branches in the region. The “AmCham” branch in Armenia was founded in 2000 and at the present, more than 80 companies collaborate with the chamber. The capital of these companies is in American dollars and some of them circulate money in the States. President of “AmCham” in Armenia Edit Khachatryan, U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Evans and President of the National Assembly of Armenia Artur Baghdasaryan each made a welcoming speech during the conference. Artur Baghdasaryan believes that “The state must be a collaborator in order to be in business, not some kind of press machine.” A. Baghdasaryan encouraged “AmCham” to help the legislative body in improving the economic legislation of Armenia. John Evans believes that business and trade can do a lot in solving the political conflicts between the countries in the region.
Armenia’s “worm”
“The first ones to threaten the national security of Armenia are not from the outside, for example, Turkey or Azerbaijan, but rather, it is from the inside and that is corruption,” said professor of international relations Richard Giragosyan from Washington. Giragosyan stated that he was not as irritated by the oligarchs or the presence of monopolists in different fields of economy, as much as he was by the fact that “somebody’s 16 year old stupid son can run over and kill innocent people with his personal “Hummer” and not get punished for it.” He did not mention whose son he referred to.
You can read about the speeches and discussions during the conference in further detail in our next issue.