News
EP Vice-President in Armenia to launch
International Association of Business and Parliament
Armenian Office
7 June, 2006
On
the 7th of June the IABP Armenia office has launched
its activities officially. The event has been visited
by the EP Vice-President, Edward MacMillan Scott who
was delegated by the President of European Parliament.
The event has been visited by the number of MPs, from
which the 7 are the members of recently established
Coordianting Council consisting of Memebers of Parliament
representing all the factions and political parties.
There were also the participants from IABP London, Georgia,
Moldova and Ukraine. Representatives of International
and Non Governmental Organizations, all sizes of businesses
as well as representatives of Mass Media were invited
and present at the ceremony. Mr. Edward MacMillan Scott
delivered an opening speech proclaiming IABP Armenian
branch officially launched and also welcomed and expressed
his gratitude to everyone who was involved in this important
initiative. He believed that this can play a fundamental
role for Armenia for improving the national economy.
H.E.
Vladimir
Pryakhin, OSCE Ambassador to Armenia welcomed the idea
and importance of the organization and stated that he
is ready for future cooperation and that he will support
any initiative of the organization. Vahan Hovhannisyan,
the Vice Chairman of the National Assembly expressed
his gratitude and considered the honour to be elected
as the Chairman of Coordinating Council. According to
him the association aims to build a strong bridge connecting
parliament and the business world so that all legislative
reforms can serve the purpose of economic development
of a country. He said the association will seek to promote
development of small and medium businesses in Armenia.
Frederick Hyde-Chambers, Secretary General of the organization
detailed about the work of the association. He opined
that the economic and political system of the country,
the
whole
Armenian nation is in the transition period. He ensured
that the transition stage would successfully pass. The
organization began to undertake practical steps to promote
the formation of the appropriate legislative field.
During the opening ceremony the certificates were presented
to all members of Coordinating Council having its contribution
to the organization activities as well as to the businesses
as founding members of the IABP Armenia. Among Buisnesses
present were the Synopsis company, two prominent private
Channels as well as businesses representing the big
spectrum of the economy sector of Armenia including
the medical equipment production and the small restaurant
businesses. Mr. Edward MacMillan Scott has been given
acertificate that he has been elected as an Honourable
President of the organization.
Several meetings were organized by IABP Armenia within
the framework of Edward MacMillan Scott, which included
the
meeting
at the Parliament and Minister of Foreign Affairs. Mainly
the meetings have covered the accession of Armenia to
EU and Armenia role in neighborhood policy.
The event has got quite big coverage in media including
the web-sites of the Parliament of Armenia.
According to Edward MacMillan Scott the “programme
content, the engagement of the national parliamentarians
and the quality and the commitment of the staff involved
was impressive”.
To Promote the Dialogue of the Legislators and
Businessmen
On March 28 RA NA Speaker Artur Baghdasaryan received
Frederick Hyde-Chambers, Secretary General of International
Association of Parliaments and Businessmen.
Presenting his mission, Mr. Frederick Hyde-Chambers
pointed out that the International Association of Parliaments
and Businessmen is a non-governmental organization.
It was founded in 1977 in Great Britain and it has the
task to establish direct ties between the parliaments
and businessmen, promoting the deputies’ awareness
on the dialogue of the legislators and businessmen.
The Association has its branches in 16 countries, including
Finland, France, Belgium, Spain, Holland, Sweden, USA,
Canada, New Zealand and unites 300 international companies.
During the meeting an agreement was reached to discuss
the issue of joining the National Assembly to the International
Association of Parliaments and Businessmen, submitting
the activity and the programmes of the Association to
the businessmen MPs of the Armenian Parliament.
NA Speaker Artur Baghdasaryan and Frederick Hyde-Chambers,
Secretary General of International Association of Parliaments
and Businessmen said that the membership of the Armenian
Parliament will give opportunity the Armenian businessmen
to contribute to the establishment of business contacts,
assist the exchange of experience in the sphere of business.
Parties ready for cooperation
August 26, 2005
On the August 22 meeting between secretary of
ARF’s parliamentary faction Hrayr Karapetian
and the Secretary General of the International Association
of Business and Parliament (IABP) Frederick Hyde Chambers
the latter pointed out that the British society was
concerned that any cooperation between the business
and the parliament was corrupt.
Chambers noted that this concern was the reason why
the IABP was created. A similar concern exists in
Armenia and the cooperation effort launched today
attempts at mitigating this concern. Chairman of the
NGO for Protection of Consumers Rights Abgar Yeghoyan
and project officer of IABP Armenian office Karen
Sargsyan were present at the meeting. The IABP delegation
headed by Chambers first visited Armenia in March
2005.
As Chambers noted at the meeting, he came to Armenia
upon the invitation of the National Assembly Vice
Speaker Vahan Hovhannissian to assess the possibility
of introducing the business and parliament model in
Armenia, a model that would benefit the economy, ensure
fair competition and eliminate the possibility of
misuse of legislative power. Chambers had a meeting
with the National Assembly Speaker.
The latter assured that Armenia is open to support
any initiatives aimed at facilitating transparent
relations between the National Assembly deputies and
the businessmen. A series of meetings were held with
representatives of various organizations supporting
the development of SME’s.
Meetings were held with representatives of the Union
of SME’s and the Union of Traders as well as
several international organizations implementing projects
on empowerment of the parliament and development of
small and medium businesses. At Karapetian’s
request, Chambers presented the activities of IABP.
“Our goal is to achieve mutual understanding,
trust between the non-corrupted entities, enhancement
of constructive approaches and transparent relations
between the parliamentarians and the businessmen,”
Chambers noted adding that for this purpose representatives
of various political parties and businesses united
in 1977 determined to create mechanisms that would
ensure transparency of all processes within the economy.
“These activities were not the result of lobbying
from any specific business since all strata were represented
there”, Chambers said. Similar approaches were
used in Finland, France, Belgium, Spain, Holland,
Sweden, USA, Canada and New Zealand. Chambers noted
that among the post-Soviet countries only Georgia
had introduced this model.
IABP’s national models initially designed as
educational resources for the parliaments involve
various projects for representatives of all business
sectors and all political parties represented in the
parliament. IABP offers opportunities for international
exchange of parliamentarians and businessmen participating
in the IABP national models.
Karapetian who is also heading the parliament group
for protection of the consumers’ rights noted
with appreciation Chambers’ proposal for cooperation
pointing our that a number of large businesses are
represented in the Armenian parliament and the opinion
that the relations between the parliament and the
businesses are corrupt is relevant for Armenia as
well.
“Cooperation within the National Assembly is
important in terms of protection of small and medium
businesses as well as protection of the consumers’
rights. We have discussed these issues with the representative
of OSCE in Armenia and with representatives of various
NGO’s.
There is no need to invent a new bicycle –
we are ready to cooperate with interested international
organizations and study the international experience
since the problems are similar,” Karapetian
said presenting the activities of the parliament group
for protection of consumers’ rights in the sphere
of food safety. Chambers agreed that problems are
similar everywhere assuring that IABP is ready to
implement practical projects and provide consulting
and expertise.
“It is important that the entire business sector
is involved in this cooperation initiative from the
very start. We are ready to cooperate on issues related
to food security since this is directly connected
to our activities,” Chambers said noting that
his impression from the meetings with the Armenian
parliamentarians and businesses has been that the
cooperation will be a success.
Answering our question whether he believes that it
is possible to eliminate the opinion prevailing in
the society that the relations between the business
sector and the parliament are corrupt Chambers noted,
“In all the countries, irrespective of whether
or not the relations between the parliament and the
business sector are corrupt, the public opinion holds
that there is corruption.
Our national models can help in both cases –
when the public opinion holds that there is corruption
and when there really is corruption in the relations
between the parliament and the business sector. Our
goal is to facilitate non-corrupt relations so that
the public opinion changes”.
