Idling Vanadzor Chemical Industry CJSC is
negotiating with a new investor for reactivation of the plant, Alexander
Snegirev, Director General of the Company, told ArmInfo.
He said that plant is idling for debts exceeding 4 bln
drams. He said these are debts for energy resources, to suppliers and arrears
of wages. The plant has 160 million arrears of wages, Snegirev said. "At present, we are negotiating with
the investor for the funds to pay arrears of wages and reactivate the
plant," he said.
The plant has never worked consistently and regularly
accumulated debts. The company's staff has been repeatedly rallying demanding
their wages lately. The last time, the workers held a protest action in early
August, when Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan visited the plant. The prime
minister said the plant is a private property and the issue of wages is not
within his competence. However, he promised, at least, a month-salary to the
workers. Quite recently, the workers received salary for a month. It is noteworthy that the prime minister
could not name the owner of the company to reporters. So, it is not clear where the funds were taken from to pay a
month-salary to the workers. A question arises as to whether the salary was
paid from the state budget and why the government redeems the debts of a
private company.
According
to local media outlets, negotiations are held with a British company for
investments in Vanadzor Chemical Plant. Later, there were reports on a Georgian
investor. However, neither the new nor the current shareholders of the plant
are named.
It was
reported earlier that in 2007, the shares of the Vanadzor Chemical Plant were
purchased for $25 million by Roding International Limited, Russia. Recently,
some media reported that the company's shares belong to a certain Galiana
Kozlova.