President Serzh Sargsyan’s working visit to Ararat Marz

President Serzh Sargsyan today made a working visit to Ararat Marz.

The Armenian President visited Greenhouse LLC located in the administrative area of Artashat. The company was founded in 2011 with the aim of setting up a greenhouse complex and organizing production of melons and gourds. The company is mainly engaged in exporting fresh and recycled vegetables to CIS and European countries.

Accompanied by the government officials in charge of agriculture and the company’s top executives, the President toured the greenhouse complex, familiarized himself with some 15-million-dollar investments and the conditions created as a result of those investments, including with the infrastructures corresponding to international standards and the company’s development projects.

The officials in charge of agriculture introduced President Serzh Sargsyan to the trends and prospects for development of greenhouse farms in the republic, as well as to the favorable conditions geared towards greenhouse development.

According the officials, as of February of 2015, there are greenhouses with a total of more than 763.6 hectare area operating in the republic, out of which 74.25 hectare have employed modern technology (RA Kotayk Marz – 45.95 ha, RA Armavir Marz – 1.0 ha and RA Ararat Marz – 30.3 ha).

There are 10-12 thousand employees working at the republic’s greenhouse farms, the majority of whom are managers of small greenhouses and temporary workers. In 2015, modern greenhouses with an area of about 51.0 ha will be built, out of which 46.0 ha in Nor Geghi village of Kotayk Marz and 5.0 ha in Dzoraghbyur village. Besides the 30-hectare greenhouses built in Shahumyan village of Ararat Marz, Greenhouse LLC plans to enlarge the area with 40.0-50.0 hectare.

Greenhouse’s executives presented the company’s expansion strategy, noting that it involves building a 20-hectare greenhouse complex in 2015 (fully heated and equipped with hydroponic technology) which is worth about 12 million USD. It will be financed by the Italian SACE Fund (the State Agency for Foreign Trade Insurance and Credit Services). The greenhouse parts will be supplied by Italian Lucchini LLC. As a result, the number of permanent workers directly engaged in the company’s greenhouses is expected to be doubled, while the total production capacity will exceed 15000 tons annually.

At the greenhouse complex, Serzh Sargsyan attended the opening of a radish recycling and packing workshop and the launch of the second construction phase of the greenhouse complex, which was followed by the signing of a contract on a new 20-hecatre greenhouse construction between Greenhouse LLC and Italian Lucchini LLC.

As part of his visit to Ararat Marz, President Serzh Sargsyan visited the Paruyr Sevak House-Museum in Zangakatun. Serzh Sargsyan visited the newly-built museum building in company of the officials in charge of culture, familiarized himself with the construction works, the new conditions created in the museum, watched the refreshed exposition and the exhibition of Sevak’s new publications.

On January 24 of 2013 – the 89th birthday of Paruyr Sevak – when President Serzh Sargsyan made a visit to Zangakatun, the governing members of the house-museum and the village dwellers asked the President to address the issue of setting up a new building adjacent to the house-museum. Under the president’s direction, the Armenian Social Investment Fund examined the issue and made a project proposal, according to which the adjacent building was designed and built. The construction started on December 19 of 2014 and finished in March of 2015. The building looks like a belfry; it includes the administrative part of the house-museum and the stack combined with the reception hall.

Serzh Sargsyan attended the events organized at the Sevak House-Museum by the RA Ministry of Culture and the Armenian Modern Art Union on the occasion of World Poetry Day. The Armenian President placed flowers at the tomb of Paruyr Sevak, after which he was hosted by the descendants of the illustrious writer at his private residence.