Mills: Washington is ready to assist economic and political reforms  of the new government of Armenia

ArmInfo.Washington is ready to assist the economic and political reforms of the new government of Armenia, which will help, by improving the business and investment  environment, attract more American companies that already see the  potential here. As the RA Government's press service reports, this  was stated by the US Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills during a  meeting with Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan.

During the meeting, the sides discussed a number of issues of  bilateral cooperation, including the continuation of investment and  grant projects, the need to stimulate the tax and infrastructure  systems, and touched Armenia's competitiveness in terms of  participation in the new Millennium Challenge Corporation agreement.  Mills promised in the foreseeable future to touch on this issue.

The US Ambassador stressed the importance of continuing the  activities of Lydian-Armenia, as a major investment project.

In turn, the Deputy Prime Minister assured that the new government  will conduct an impartial investigation to demonstrate the overall  picture of Armenia's mining industry and its compliance with  international and state standards. According to him, these  inspections should be conducted in all enterprises, transparently and  in a reliable form for all parties, and the production, working  according to state standards, will be protected by the state.

Earlier, the Ministry of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources  of Armenia refused to consider the issue of closing the program for  development of the gold mine "Amulsar". In a letter addressed to  environmental and public organizations of the country, it is noted  that the right to use deposits can be suspended in case of violation  of the Subsoil Code. The right to develop the Amulsar deposit granted  by Lydian Armenia cannot be suspended on the basis of the conclusion  of foreign organizations. According to the 51st article of the  Subsoil Code, the right to subsoil development is granted after  appropriate positive conclusions have been reached on the absence of  environmental impact. In this context, the development program for  the Amulsar deposit received a certificate of compliance of the  cyanide management system with the international code. Moreover, on  January 18, 2018, the official report of the International Institute  for Management of Cyanide noted that regardless of the results of the  independent audit, the Lidian Armenia program is in line with the  principles and practice of the Cyanide Code initiative. "The project  to develop the Amulsar deposit can be considered a successful  experience with the application of new technologies, from the point  of view of implementing responsible social and nature protection  programs," the ministry said in a letter. It also emphasizes that 80%  of the work has already been completed at the field. A few million  cubic meters of land were excavated, 9 thousand cubic meters the  ground is concreted, about 20 km of roads have been built. Work has  also been done on water management, as well as most of the measures  to maintain environmental standards. Ready 2 platforms for leaching,  in the process of installation is the installation of layers of  gypsum board and polymer geomembranes.