Epress.am News from Armenia
On February 19, the World Bank released a statement in which the organization plans to support the Armenian government in the prolonged dispute between the Nairit Rubber Plant and its employees.
“Armenia’s future economic growth highly depends on the development of a vibrant modern knowledge-based economy, foreign direct investments, and several other factors, including addressing adequately the legacy of economic activities in the previous era. The organization stated that they would help provide a “highly-respectable and globally-experienced” consulting firm to look over the “technical and financial viability” of the Nairit plant's operations in order to make significant decision for the plant's future,” reads the statement.
World Bank Country Manager in Armenia Laura E. Bailey clarified saying that “we have agreed with the Government to mobilize grant resources of more than $110,000 from within the World Bank for the proposed expertise that will ensure the quality of analyses the counterpart needs from internationally recognized experts. We had hoped to have the work begin in early February, but it took some time to ensure that we selected the best possible experts."
The rest of the statement lists details for their plans:
“Throughout the first phase, which is scheduled to begin on 25 February and take two and a half months, the consulting firm will specifically review four elements:
– An overview of the global market for the main products that could be produced by the plant;
– An assessment of the technical feasibility of production based on the existing plant;
– An assessment of the financial viability of production given current cost structures; and
– A strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-threats (SWOT) analysis.
In the second phase, a basic environmental review of Nairit operations will be undertaken.
The World Bank will provide close monitoring and quality review for this analysis of Nairit, however we would like to clarify that this analytical work will be conducted under the leadership of the Minister for Energy and Natural Resources as part of the cooperation between the Government of Armenia and the World Bank.”
Recall, Nairit employees have been protesting for over a year for 18 months of unpaid salaries by the failing factory. In recent months, the workers were promised by the Minister of Energy and Nature Protection Yervand Zakharyan that they would receive one month's salary by February 2, but were left unpaid. On Monday, the workers demonstrated demanding their salaries in front of the Government building and were told that their complaints would be responded to on Friday, February 20, by the Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan.