The firm's principal shareholder has been identified as Dikran Izmirlian, 77, who made his fortune by creating a near-monopoly on the world's peanut market. Izmirlian, who is of Armenian descent, is chairman and chief executive of Alimenta, a company that has built up a big interest in the Gambian peanut, or groundnut, market.I can't promise that my hatred for peanuts will disappear, but at least we have identified another Armenian who has made a mark on the world!
Despite holding a Swiss passport, Dikran Izmirlian has roots in Armenia. In 1994 he established the Izmirlian Foundation in Armenia's capital, Yerevan, to support education and business in the country. Other philanthropic work involves funding construction work at the city's university library, military academy and religious institutions.
NATO member Turkey signed a $1.78 billion deal on May 11 to buy 30 F-16 fighter jets from U.S.-based Lockheed Martin Corp as part of an ambitious program to modernize its armed forces. Under the agreement, the aircraft will be produced, assembled, tested and delivered by Turkish aerospace firm Tusas in Ankara...Turkey is obviously on a buying spree. Even though the planes will be assembled in Turkey, the United States will benefit handsomely from this deal. Once more, the military gap between Turkey and Armenia widens.
In its biggest ever procurement project, Turkey signed a memorandum of understanding in January to buy 100 F-35 joint strike fighters worth nearly $10.7 billion from 2014 under a program led by Lockheed Martin.
...the elder son of the Armenian President Sedrak Kocharyan controls the imports of mobile phones...a decision was made at the top level to transfer the monopoly of imports of mobile phones to...through Samvel Alexanyan, the sole importer of sugar to Armenia. It means Alexanyan is now a shareholder of Sedrak Kocharyan’s business...There you have it!
...importers of cannot get customs clearance for a long time now. Meanwhile, it is impossible to get the mobiles to the market without customs clearance first...In addition, the National Security Service has displayed interest in companies which have been importing mobile phones to Armenia so far.
Greece intends to involve Armenia into its five-year economic development program. During the meeting the sides discussed bilateral cooperation and issues that are of mutual interest.Greece is a strong ally that must be kept close. Increasing trade between the two countries is a good start.
The forum is scheduled to include 1,950 Armenian companies, from Armenia and elsewhere. The main theme: automation and management, semiconductors and nanotechnology, business software, internet and digital communications, military, aerospace and transportation systems, automated systems design.Armenia can also take business hints from Israel: build weapons, sell them to everyone, get filthy rich. Won't be easy, but think about it.
Armenia should not yield to anti-globalization motions, since taking into account country’s size and abilities, it is quite out of sense, stated Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian...True enough.
In his words, the little Armenia and the large Armenian Diaspora must use the chances given by globalization. If official Yerevan sensibly uses these opportunities, globalization can become a discovery for Armenia. If the country does not use the chances given by globalization, it can become a state that nobody pays attention to.
In 1999, 50% of the company was purchased by Canadian Global Gold Mining Company for $3 million (WB data). In the same year, the latter sold its stake to First Dynasty Mines Ltd (Canada) for approximately $22.1 million.Frighteningly amazing, isn't it? Of course, these are only estimates and of course many were conducted with extralegal means.
It is 7 times return on investment.
In December 2004, it [Zangezour Copper Molybdenum combine] was privatized to consortium of companies for $132 million. The major one is Cronimet (German) which purchased 75% controlling skate.
By using data of State Tax Service of paid taxes for year 2005 and I semi-annual period of 2006, internal rate of return is about 84% annually.
...a tourist spends an average of 1000 USD during 5-6 days in Armenia. The majority of them are from the USA, Russia and the CIS countries.There's a lot of numbers fudging going on in Armenia, according to the source. Regardless, I'm surprised 400,000 people decided to go to Armenia, as opposed to anywhere else. Of course, it's hard to know what part of that 400,000 is of Armenian descent, but impressive numbers, nevertheless.
It was anticipated that 400 thousand tourists would visit Armenia in 2006. Robert Kocharyan himself mentioned the figure several times. Nevertheless, the reports of the Ministries show that the anticipations weren’t justified: only 380 thousand tourists visited Armenia during 2006.
The taxi services are not going to make their service more expensive, although the Government decision on taxis will cost them dear. “Of course yellow numbers will reduce the quantity of the services, but they will not become more expensive. The people using taxi services mainly belong to the middle walk of life. If the service becomes more expensive, we will lose the majority of the clients”, said one of the drives.Just another way to exercise control over taxi drivers and companies, or a drive to regule them in the name of consumer demands? You be the judge.
On January 12 the RA Government decision on the "Demands on the numbers of the means of public transportation" come into force. According to the decision, the cars used as taxis should have yellow numbers, like route taxis.
The RA Taxation Service collected a total of AMD 220.683bln (about $605 million) taxes instead of the planned AMD 220.417bln...So if you run a prostitution ring, you get off without a hitch.
He said that tax revenues actually increased by AMD 47bln ($128 million) compared to 2005. Tsolakyan stressed that a steady increase in tax revenues have been recorded in Armenia over the last few years.
Tsolakyan stressed that the RA taxation Service focused its attention on construction, mining industry, gas and public catering.
Armenia will exhibit a collection of Armenian goods in Toronto, Canada, between January 16th to 21st. Some 36 companies will present carpets, clothing, footwear, food, and more.Armenia needs to export, or its trade deficit will continue to grow even more.
It seems that Canada is especially interested in low sugar and low salt Armenian canned fruit and vegetables.
The highest form of economic freedom provides an absolute right of property ownership, fully realized freedoms of movement for labor, capital, and goods, and an absolute absence of coercion or constraint of economic liberty beyond the extent necessary for citizens to protect and maintain liberty itself.This year, Armenia ranked 32nd with 69.4%, which puts us under Moderately Free, but only two spots away from Mostly Free! This ranking also makes Armenia the 19th freest among the 41 countries in the European region, which is pretty amazing! However, we ranked poorly in two of the ten freedoms: Property Rights at 30% and Freedom from Corruption at 29%, but did beautifully in two others: Fiscal Freedom at 93.1% and Freedom from Government at 91.6%.
In other words, individuals are free to work, produce, consume, and invest in any way they please, and that freedom is both protected by the state and unconstrained by the state.
