Argentine air company to take over Yerenvan airport

[Azat]

YEREVAN, Sep 23, 2001 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) -- Yerevan's Zvartnots

international airport will be handed over for 50 years under the administration

of the Argentinian company Aeropuertos Argentina-2000. A memorandum of mutual

understanding was signed here on Saturday between the company and the Armenian

government.

 

Company board chairman Eduardo Ernekyan said that he intends to invest 50

million U.S. dollars in updating the airport and bringing its administration to

the international level.

 

Big and serious work is in store: for instance it will be necessary to repair

the runway, to retool the airport equipment and to take measures to raise air

safety engineering.

 

The company does not mean to privatise or to purchase this transport junction,

the businessman noted, whose company runs 83 airports all over the world.

 

When peace returns to the region, the Yerevan airport will be the centre of

international air traffic, Ernekyan is convinced.

 

The businessman praised the stand of the Armenian leadership on supporting

private entrepreneurial activities at a meeting with Armenian President Robert

Kocharyan. Ernekyan is convinced that the republic has every chance to snatch

the leading position in the region, Tass learnt at the presidential press

service.

 

The president expressed opinion that "the state is not the best owner: the

executive power should not run business but should create conditions for normal

economic activities".

 

Experience of privatisation of the past few years shows that foreign investors

gradually increase their interest in the Armenian economy, Kocharyan noted.

"Creation of jobs should be preconditioned by efficient entrepreneurial

activities so that these jobs should be stable," he stressed.

 

The president said that he is quite familiar with the Armenian community in

Argentina, distinguished for it high organisational character and interesting

initiatives.

 

 

By Tigran Liloyan

 

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