YEREVAN, DECEMBER 22, NOYAN TAPAN. "I hope that Kocharian's power will not have its continuation after the presidential elections," the former Armenian prime minister Hrant Bagratian stated at the December 21 press conference. He characterized the current situation in Armenia as a complex one because the concentration of wealth has gone the limit, and 17% of the country's GDP is managed by two persons: Robert Kocharian and Serge Sragsian. "The president and the prime minister of this kind cannot be neutral managers. Today the banking sector and huge part of imports are in the hands of the president, who also plays a serious role in the mining industry and construction," H. Bagratian said. In his opinion, if S. Sargsian becomes the president, his business rather than the country will develop. "The country's president may not have a business, and if he has one, he cannot be a good, neutral manager. Whereas, today he is the biggest businessman," the former prime minister said. According to him, the current authorities are accusing the former ones, whereas big enterprises have been privatized under the current authorities as well. For example, the Zangezur copper and molybdenum enterprise was sold for only 132 million dollars, which is equal to 6 months' profit of this enterprise. Meanwhile, the growth of molybdenum prices have exceeded several times the oil price growth. The new owners have been given 3 years to pay this sum. H. Bagratian added that Haysavingsbank and Ardshininvest Bank have been sold in the same way. In the words of H. Bagratian, there is no real economy in the country because the production volumes are lower than in 1997. He said that such a country cannot be competitive and have a future. The former prime minister noted that only 4-5% growth has been registered in Armenia as compared with 40% growth of Azerbaijan's economy, whereas a completely different index should have been registered in Armenia. Today the 2008 state budget of 2.5 billion dollars is spoken about, which is more by only 180 billion drams as compared with 2007's budget. By estimate of H. Bagratian, the programmed growth is completely conditioned by transfers of 700-800 million dollars from abroad. "There will be additional demand of 700-800 million dollars, goods of this amount will be imported, the president and the prime minister will strengthen their importing structures even more, while the Central Bank of Armenia will again reduce the rate of the US dollar a bit so that the profit will increase," he underlined. In his words, if the degree of the economy's independence declines or there is a war, we "will be in a worse situation". Therefore, according to him, Armenia's chances to win the war will be much lower.

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