Armenia left without another major project

Armenian is losing its attractiveness for foreign economic partners, thus being obliged to cease international projects that it agreed before.

The government had to refuse another major project, which it had harbored for several years.

The construction of Meghri hydropower plant (HPP) is no longer in the economic plans of Armenia. For the second year the government does not submit to the agenda anything related to the construction of the plant, Armenian media wrote.

It means that the HPP is now completely left forgotten, although the start for its construction in November 2012 was given in the presence of Serzh Sargsyan. The construction was scheduled for completion this year. The necessary investments, about $325 million, were assumed by the Iranian side. The HPP would produce about 800 million kW/h of electricity, which is more than 10 percent of Armenia’s annual production.

After the completion, the plant would supply energy to Iran for 15 years; after that, the NPP would be donated to Armenia. However, the construction of the HPP was not even discussed during the visit of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to Armenia in December 2016. There is not a single mention of the program of construction the Meghri NPP in the program of activities for 2017, which was recently approved by the Armenian government.

In addition, Yerevan had to abandon the construction of the railway between Armenia and Iran in early January. Armenian media stated that a resolution on the closure of the Directorate on constructing the railway under Armenian Ministry of Transport was adopted at the meeting of the government.

Thus, by abandoning the construction of the Meghri HPP, Armenia has completely lose any chance to revive its economy through major projects.