President Serzh Sargsyan’s working visit to Kotayk and Gegharkunik Marzes

President Serzh Sargsyan today paid a working visit to the Kotayk and Gegharkunik Marzes.

Armenia’s president attended the opening ceremony of Yeghvard Child-Juvenile Sports School in the Kotayk Marz, which was attended by the RA sports and youth affairs minister, heads of local and regional government bodies, town dwellers and the school alumni. Serzh Sargsyan toured the newly-opened sports training center, familiarized himself with the works performed and the training conditions.

The two-story sports school has small and big gym-halls designed for volleyball, basketball, mini football, wrestling, box and judo, and a separate administrative section. The president was also introduced to the playground built near the sports school which is designed for big tennis, basketball and volleyball. The sports school building is equipped with heating, ventilation and anti-fire systems and is fully furnished with sports equipment. The training center employs 25 people - 14 trainers and 11 administrative workers - with an average salary of 130,000 AMD.

As part of his working visit to the Gegharkunik Marz, President Serzh Sargsyan attended the relaunching ceremony of the Sevan Mineral Water Plant in Gavar. From 2010 to 2013 large-scale construction and renovations works were carried out at the plant. The first phase of the business project finished in June 2015, as a result of which, according to the executives, the plant will produce around 50,000 bottles of mineral water (20-25 million bottles annually). The productive capacity of the modern production line is 8000-12000 bottles in an hour. The bottling technology involves transferring mineral water from its spring to the reservoir, water reservation, quieting and cultivation. Water quality management will be carried out at the plant lab. In the future, new investments will be made aimed at installing a polyethylene bottle production line. As a result of the relaunching, about 80 jobs have been created with an average monthly salary of 110,000 AMD. After reaching its full productive capacity, the plant will employ 180 people. The president was also presented the second phase of works under the company’s investment project - production of natural buckthorn juice, buckthorn oil and compotes - towards which some works are already being done.

The production of the plant - bottles labeled ‘Sevan’ - will be exported to the CIS countries, mainly the Russian Federation, as well as to Europe and the U.S..

There are also fish and crawfish breeding pools in the territory of the plant in which around one ton of fish is bred (trout and sturgeon varieties). According to the executives, during the period between September and October, they plan to found four crawfish-breeding pools with productive capacity of 2-3 tons annually, and the production capacity of ten pools allows producing five tons of fish annually, which will give the opportunity to export fish food as well.
In the Gegharkunik Marz, President Serzh Sargsyan also visited Technoman LLC’s carbon dioxide extraction factory, where the president was presented the company’s investments and its further development projects. It was noted that the main goal of the company, which was founded in 2012, is to produce high quality natural carbon dioxide with purity of 99.9 %: The construction works of the complex and the ordering and installation of production lines started in the first quarter of 2013 and finished in September 2014. The total investments of the project comprise around one billion AMD. The productive capacity of the production complex is 5,000 tons of CO2 gas annually, out of which 2,000 tons are expected to realize in Armenia, and 3,000 tones to export to Georgia and the Russian Federation. At present, the company employs 11 workers with an average salary of 170,000 AMD.

Afterwards, the Armenian president attended the opening ceremony of a fully-renovated music school in the town of Martuni. During the tour, the president was presented that the full renovation works of the school built back in 1952 started in October 2012 and finished in July 2015. As a result of the works, the building has become three-story, the number of auditoriums has been increased by seven, reaching 19. An event hall and classrooms have been added. Repairing works have been carried our inside the entire building. The internal heating network has been recovered based partially on the existing one, and a new above-ground gas pipe has been installed. The water supply network has been fully reconstructed. The music school has been furnished with necessary property. The school has 23 employees whose number will increase by another seven after the full renovation. Their average salary is 95,000 AMD. Prior to the full renovation, the school held 190 children. It is expected that under the new conditions their number will increase by 50.

Lastly, President Serzh Sargsyan attended the opening of the Lake Sevan 2015 International Chess Tournament at Martuni’s Culture House which has been held by the Chess Academy of Armenia and the Armenian Chess Federation since 2005. The FIDE 15th category round-robin tournament, which will finish on June 21, is joined by ten strong international grandmasters from different countries of the world.