On February 22, 2023, a tripartite memorandum of understanding was signed between RA government, Eurasian Development Bank and "Lydian Armenia" CJSC, which will allow the development of Amulsar mine.
The document was signed by RA government - Minister of Economy, Vahan Qerobyan. "Today, a memorandum of understanding was signed, by which the parties express their intentions to attract 150 million US dollars through this contract, but outside of this contract, another 100 million dollars will be invested in the direction of the reactivation of Amulsar mine. The government will get a 12.5 percent stake in the new company and will not pay anything in return, but will instead insure certain risks of the deal as a shareholder as well,” the minister said.
The news about signing a memorandum on Amulsar project with "Lydian Armenia" and thus giving the green light to the project was presented to the public at the very last moment during one of the discussions held in the National Assembly today.
Actually, Government has broken the promises given to the public that they will carefully examine the opinions and conclusions presented by the experts related to Amulsar project in order to make an informed decision. Promises about prospects are manipulative, because there is no estimate of what losses Jermuk will suffer, for the development of which millions of money have already been invested, what losses will be suffered by many small businesses that serve the region. There are many other issues, which have been repeatedly presented to the Government, and which are reflected in the expert report prepared by the decree of the Prime Minister.
As a sign of protest, the representatives of Armenian civil society gathered in front of RA government building at the moment of signing the memorandum.
February 22, 2023 at 20:58