EcoLur
The Armenian Government has applied to the World Bank to assess the mining sector in Armenia, which aims to help formation of strategy on soil. As result, the Bank has assessed and presented “Armenia Strategic Mineral Sector Sustainability Assessment” report on 8 June.
Teghou Support Initiative member, “EcoIravunq” NGO President Arthur Grigoryan asked, if the report had assessed whether the environmental and social impact of small and medium mines was equivalent to economic benefits.
Kirsten Hund, Senior Mining Specialist at the World Bank, replied that the profitability of the small mines is no high, but there is no in-detailed studies of their environmental impact in the report.
“According to the report, mining sector is a priority for Armenia and promotes the economic and social development of the country. Nevertheless, when metal prices fall down, the companies apply to the government for the support. The government grants them privileged loans and exonerated certain companies from custom duties, In this case, what is the role of these companies in the formation of the budget, when they take funds from the budget,” Inga Zarafyan, President of “EcoLur” Informational NGO, addressed a question.
“This issue is a very important one, but it’s not reflected in the report,” said Laura Bailey, World Bank Country Manager for Armenia.
“Once we wanted to develop tourism, now we want mining to have a big role in the economy, but it seems there are incompliances. For example, Lori-Teghout: tourism is counter-indicated, Zagezour-Qajaran-Agarak: counter-indicated, Jermuk-Amulsar: tourism counter-indicated,” said economist Vahagn Khachatryan. He also mentioned that the operations in this sector are non-transparent.
June 09, 2016 at 16:38