NEWS

26.02.2010

Press Conference in the Government

On February 26, 2010 a press conference, initiated by the RA Government, took place. The topic of the press conference was "Irrigation system in Armenia: investments, results, plans for future". The press conference took place at the Government's press center with participation of the representatives of key programs working on the rehabilitation of the irrigation infrastructure - MCA-Armenia and Irrigation PIU. MCA-Armenia was represented by the Irrigation project Officer Tigran Kalantaryan briefly presented the on-going irrigation infrastructure rehabilitation works being implemented under the MCA-Armenia program and the future steps. He described all the components of the infrastructure project - main canals, gravity schemes, tertiary canals, pumping stations and rehabilitation of drainage system. After presentation he answered the questions of media representatives. The questions mainly concerned the financial side of the investments, the volume of investments needed for the modernization of the irrigation system in Armenia, etc.

12.02.2010

Ljiljana Spasic-Gril and Stuart Gunn, representatives of MCCs independent Engineering Consultant Company-Jacobs (UK), were in Armenia from February 8 through February 13. This was yet another mission through which MCCs independent consultant reviews the works in progress under MCA-Armenia's Infrastructure Activity and provides feedback to MCC and MCA-Armenia on how well they are progressing, both from the technical perspective as well as given their effectiveness and timeliness. This visit stands out from the almost biannual missions as it comes at a time when the Armenian program has entered full construction stage. During the five days of their stay in Armenia our Jacobs colleagues visited construction sites, had meetings with construction contractors and summarized their findings in a report. The highlight of their mission was a site visit to the Arzni-Shamiram main canal, where the works are progressing well. The use of shotcrete on this canal is an essential technical solution that is well-received by Jacobs representatives. Back in the design stage they were concerned by the proposed use of heavy lining and everywhere asked MCA-Armenia to consider this new technology, which was later accepted by MCA-Armenia and implemented in Arzni-Shamiram canal, allowing to significantly accelerate the works.

04.02.2010

On February 4, the Stakeholders' Committee held a full day outreach meeting to discuss and amend SC Bylaws, clarify the mechanisms of the GC members' selection and a few other internal regulatory issues.

During the outreach event ongoing projects of the MCA-Armenia Program were presented to the SC members as well as their possible participation was discussed. As traditional role of the SC member, the following was highlighted: 1. participation in the evaluation panels; 2. visits to Program sites; 3. public awareness activities. MCA-Armenia representatives encouraged SC members to regularly participate at the programmatic activities: monitoring the quality of construction, discussion of legislation initiatives, public hearings, trainings, as well as present and discuss the issues raised with the MCA. SC members were particularly interested in visiting the Program sites, participation at the public hearings on environmental and social issues, restart of the credit component as well as efficiency of the trainings in the communities. MCC Resident Country Director Alex Russin gave much importance to the role of the SC members in the efficient implementation of the Program and its positive image.

03.02.2010

Credit Component Monitoring Results

On February 3, 2010 the implementing company of the Credit component of the Water-to-Market activity - Rural Finance Facility (RFF) PIU, presented the summarized research of the credits disbursed up to date. It is almost 2 years that the Credit component is being implemented. During the first year credit resources were disbursed through 4 banks and universal credit organizations selected through open bidding process, while in the second year their number is - 10. According to the RFF report, as of January 1, 2010, the number of applications for getting agricultural loan was 229, which contain 597 credit packages with the total amount of AMD 2,546,971 million. 91% of money has been disbursed. According to the report, the average amount of the loan is AMD 4,2 million, average duration - 61 months, average interest rate - 11%.

The loans are mainly directed to the construction and development of greenhouses, refrigerating equipments, fruit and grape orchards. Their main recipients are individual farmers.

22.01.2010

MCA-Armenia site visits commenced.

On January 22, 2010 MCA-Armenia CEO Ara Hovsepyan, accompanied with a group of staff members, visited Armavir and Ararat marzes. In Lukashin, Hovtashat and Nizami communities the MCA-Armenia team got acquainted with the activities of the farmer cooperatives which are members of the Federation of Agricultural Associations (FAA), particularly - capacities of the collection points under the Water-to-Market activity, freezing equipments, as well as the consolidation center situated in Yerevan and the cooperation between these entities. FAA president Vardan Hambardzumyan also participated in this visit. An interesting discussion on farmer cooperatives took place in Lukashin community: its member-farmers raised the issue of social, financial and technical problems which are being solved through the cooperatives. The scheme of the relationships between the FAA and cooperatives was presented in details.

In the second part of the day the MCA-Armenia team visited Aygezard Gravity system and Mkhchyan 1 Pumping station and got acquainted with the on-going civil works.

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