On June 16 parliamentary hearings are envisaged to be organized in the National Assembly dedicated to the activity of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Armenia. Such an agreement was reached at April 20 meeting of Gagik Minasyan, Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Financial-Credit, Budgetary and Economic Affairs and James McHugh, IMF Resident Representative in Armenia. It is planned that IMF officials, representatives from legislative and executive bodies, NGOs, Central Bank and business world will participate at the open discussions organized by the committee. Gagik Minasyan is confident that the discussions will be effective and sharp: the cooperation of Armenia and IMF has both supporters and opponents. As the sides assessed, the parliamentary hearings can be very useful for the public: the representatives of the fund will inform about their cooperation and programmes with the executive body, a brief package on expenses and received results will be provided. Gagik Minasyan considered necessary to have prepared a comparative document on the fund activity in CIS countries. He also considered important that in parallel with the State Statistical Service the estimated indices of the international authoritative structure would also be introduced. Recently in Washington the presentation of the publication prepared by IMF describing the economic growth of Armenia, monetary-credit policy, the process of economic reforms was organized. The book is also envisaged to translate into Armenian.

In June Rodrigo de Rato y Figaredo, IMF Managing Director, will visit Armenia. On June 15-16 the meeting of 12 states’ group will also be held. These are the countries, which Holland represents in IMF.

As the IMF Resident Representative noted they have a wish to enlarge the relationship with the parliament, make their policy more transparent.