Wednesday, June 1 2022 17:30

ArmInfo.As a result of daily work with the Russian side, by the beginning of the season it will be possible to reduce the tension at the Upper Lars checkpoint. Armenian  Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan stated this to journalists on June  1.

In this regard, he said that he intends to meet with Russian partners  on June 11 at the Upper Lars checkpoint to study the possibilities of  speeding up the throughput at the checkpoint.  The Minister noted  that the reason for the resulting traffic is the forced detour of the  territories of Ukraine and Belarus by European trucks for the supply  of goods to the Russian market, which are carried out today through  Turkey and Georgia.

<We understand that this is a very difficult problem for exporters.  But we are working simultaneously in several directions>, Kerobyan  said, recalling the launch of the ferry service on June 15, to  subsidize the work of which the RA government has allocated 2.5  billion drams for the next six months.  The Minister of Economy  objected to the remark of journalists that ferry companies do not go  to the Black Sea based on the current situation. In this regard, he  said that work is also underway to restore the ferry service between  the Georgian port of Poti and the Romanian Constanta. Kerobyan noted  that until February, these works were carried out by the Ukrainian  Ukrferry shipping company, however, due to martial law, they were  forced to stop them.  The restoration of the ferry service, as  Kerobyan further explained, is also important from the point of view  of organizing Armenian exports to the markets of European countries.  In this regard, he also said that Armenian exports to the EU have  decreased. However, in general, despite the difficulties, in April,  Armenia, as the minister emphasized, managed to increase the export  of non-primary goods by 20%, while the supply of the mining sector  was in decline.  It should be reminded that, according to various  estimates, up to 3,000 heavy trucks from Armenia, Georgia and Turkey  are expected to enter Russia on the territory of Georgia.

In a conversation with an ArmInfo correspondent on May 30, the  Armenian customs attache at the Upper Lars checkpoint, Aram Tananyan,  noted that the accumulation of cars is due to the limited capacity of  the checkpoint. He explained that due to a significant increase in  the flow of goods from Turkey to Russia, Upper Lars cannot withstand  the load.  The overcongestion of road traffic was also affected by  the cessation of ferry traffic by a number of companies, in  connection with the situation in the Black Sea (Ukrainian-Russian  conflict, in connection with which drifting mines are found in the  sea, ed. note).  It should be noted that today a rally of exporters  took place near the government building, who demanded that the  authorities give an early solution to the problem, the consequences  of which can be severe for the country's economy.