YEREVAN, JANUARY 27, NOYAN TAPAN. The World Bank will provide 525 million dollars for programs to be implemented under the Strategy of Partnership with Armenia in the next 4 years, as well as for technical assistance and advisory services. The WB Vice President Shigeo Katsu said at the January 27 meeting with reporters that the indicated sum exceeds 2.5fold that allocated in 2004-2008. "This large amount of assistance by the bank is conditioned by the definite process of reforms in Armenia, the quality of the Sustainable Development Program of the RA government and the challenges that Armenia faces under conditions of the global economic crisis," S. Katsu said. According to him, the financing will be done under 5 programs. It is envisaged providing credits for development of rural areas and small and medium business, research on temperature which will be done in Armenia for the first time in cooperation with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Developement (IBRD). Other organizations of the World Bank will provide up to 800 million dollars in the form of investment quarantees to Armenia. S. Katsu underlined that the World Bank aims to neutralize or reduce the consequences of the global financial crisis in Armenia within a short period of time. He noted that in fact, the financial sector of Armenian economy was not affected at the first stage of the crisis. However, during the second stage the impact of the crisis on real economy will be greater if there is a fall in demand for goods exported from Armenia. In the words of the WB's newly-appointed Regional Director for South Caucasus Asad Alam, Armenia has status of a middle-income country so the small and medium business crediting program is the first credit on the conditions of the IBRD, thanks to which the country will have an opportunity to make more reforms. It was mentioned that Armenia has received 220 million dollars from the World Bank in 2004-2008. During its cooperation with Armenia, the World Bank has provided credits of a total of 1.1 billion dollars under more than 50 programs.

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