Investors criticize Armenian authorities for their attitude to "Nairit"

The Armenian government would not take steps to produce caoutchouc (unvulcanized rubber) in the country, representatives of the European Holding "EU-Asia Business Finance Centre" said at a press conference in Yerevan.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the "Nairit" Factory, which had produced chloroprene caoutchouc, has been idling since April 2010. On August 13, when employees of the factory learnt that the Slovak Holding "EU-Asia Business Finance Centre" had offered to invest in the restart of the production, they asked the President to accept the offer. On August 25, they accused the authorities of searching the pretext for rejecting the potential investor.

The above holding is ready to invest 100 million US dollars in the restart of the factory, Ashot Grigoryan, the head of the Holding.

However, despite the fact that the Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan spoke positively about the investment programme, his answer was "quite blurred," said Grigoryan.

He added that Mr Karapetyan was offered to sell the factory for a symbolic amount of 1 euro, provided should the plans of the holding fail, the government will stop cooperation with it. He is confident that the "Nairit" has the potential, which will allow organizing the production in a short period of time.

Karen Israelyan, an ex-director of the factory, believes that the authorities would not resume the factory to avoid questions why the factory was idling since 2010. In his opinion, the statements of the Armenian leadership about of unpromising and unprofitable character of the factory have nothing to do with reality.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.