TSAKHKADZOR, FEBRUARY 22, NOYAN TAPAN. "It is impossible to foresee a crisis, even if you feel that there is such danger. It is important to be able to manage the crisis and to derive benefits from it. Armenia has acted in this way: it made the financial and economic crisis controllable," Armenian Minister of Economy Nerses Yeritsian stated at the Kamurj international economic forum held in the city of Tsakhkadzor on February 20. In his words, the crisis demonstrated to the world that no country can remain unaffected by global developments. "In fact, for Armenia the crisis was a forced one. However, thanks to the perception of our people, the support of business circles and the active policy of the government, Armenia managed to make the crisis controllable," the minister said, adding that 2.4% growth in January 2010 shows that the crisis is behind, and now work should start to overcome future challenges. The minister said that today all countries are trying aggressively to become international players, they are making serious investments in new directions of development, and Armenia should become more enterprising in order to use these opportunities. So, according to N. Yeritsian, it is necessary to have a more global thinking and not to limit the country to its resources because in the post-crisis world, capital will become more mobile. In this sense the governent can play a catalytic role in those large infrastructure projects, which have already been announced, with concrete steps being taken on some of them today. In particular, a great investment project on road construction, communication and energy sectors is under preparation. Concrete decisions on the foundation of an all-Armenian bank have been taken: some investments were made, and a management team is currently being created. These are big projects to change the scale of the Armenian economy. "We will speak about investments worth billions, and they are already obvious today," the minister stated. He considered export as another key direction of economic development. He also underlined the importance of improving the business climate. "We should be able to make developed markets accessible to Armenia, particularly a great opportunity has formed to enter the European market, <...> where there are millions of consumers with good taste and money, and this will help us to diversify our industry," N. Yeritsian declared. He added that these programs will be implemented within 5-7 years, but intense work on them is already underway at present. According to him, it is necessary to create infrastructures, through which "we will finance our growth and development, and our economy's dependence on the world will become more proactive and manageable instead of being sensitive". In his opinion, reforms should be implemented in 3 directions: management of the state and private sectors, shift to a new pension system, and introduction of insurance companies. N. Yeritsian said that a serious dialog on the indicated problems will begin this year, and the Sustainable Development Program will be revised in late 2010. "We will develop a new program through dialog and independent research, and in case of solution of its problems, Armenia will become a state with a serious role in the region. That is, instead of using other standards and becoming involved in various regional developments, we will create standards ourselves," N. Yeritsian declared.

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