Friday, July 16 2021 16:27

ArmInfo.Acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan chaired a consultative meeting to discuss the report on the activities of the Armenian National Interests Fund  (ANIF), the press service of the RA Acting PM reports.

 "The Fund was created as something novel in our reality and a unique model of  public-private sector partnership. Ever since, we have been referring  to this topic from time to time to see how effective and applicable  this model is. Today we will discuss another report on ANIF  activities. The Fund was created in May 2019, and we have to discuss  the results of its two years' work," Nikol Pashinyan said at the  beginning of the meeting.

ANIF Executive Director David Papazyan presented the results of the  operations carried out by the Fund, the opportunities for ensuring  synergy between the public and private sectors in accordance with the  logic of Armenia's transformation strategy by 2050, as well as the  process of attracting large-scale investments. 

In particular, the program of construction of Ayg-1 photovoltaic  solar station with a capacity of 200 MW in cooperation with Masdar is  being implemented. The program is estimated at USD174 million. Mr.  Papazyan expressed confidence that this large-scale project will help  expand production capacities and bring down the applicable  electricity tariffs. Efforts are underway to implement new projects  in the energy sphere.

The ANIF Executive Director recalled that a few days ago an agreement  was signed with Air Arabia to create a national low-cost air carrier.  The carrier will operate flights to the Russian Federation, Eastern  Europe and the Middle East, offering citizens quality services at the  lowest possible rates. Over the next 5 years the airline will bring  15 planes to Yerevan Zvartnots airport.

The Fund concluded several investment deals with local companies in  the period under review, contributing thereby to the development and  expansion of their activities. Programs are being implemented in the  areas of renewable energy, agriculture, healthcare, services and  tourism.

The next vector of ANIF activities is to provide support to water and  waste management systems. Several projects envisaged in these areas  were presented during the meeting. A number of proposals and  recommendations were voiced during the exchange of views that  followed. The speakers stressed the need to ensure maximum  transparency and accountability in ANIF operations, attract new  investments and effectively implement the ongoing projects.