ARMENIA TRIES TO SPUR TRADE WITH CALIFORNIA FIRMS SEEKING INVESTORS.

Byline: Helen Gao Staff Writer

GLENDALE - Although Armenia is still making the transition from a Soviet-style government to democracy and capitalism, its prospects of expanding trade in California are promising, a panel of lawmakers and trade experts said Friday.

During a two-hour forum held at St. Mary's Armenian Apostolic Church, legislators from Sacramento and Washington, D.C., told a group of about 60 Armenian leaders that they are committed to reaching a memorandum of understanding between California and Armenia to boost trade between the two parties.

Such an agreement is expected to eventually lead to the creation of a trade office in the Armenian capital of Yerevan.

``One of the reasons why we are such an expanding, vibrant economy is because we have international trade,'' said state Sen. Jack Scott, D-Pasadena, who organized the forum.

California's $1 trillion-plus economy is considered the fifth-largest in the world - a status that Lon Hatamiya, state secretary of technology, trade and commerce, attributed in large part to foreign trade.

Hatamiya and others have high hopes for Armenia's technology sector, which once dominated the Soviet Union.

``They are going to compete heavily with Indians, who have had the run for a decade. It's time for Armenia to get into software and encryption,'' said Steve Robinson, president of Seaborne International, which specializes in trade with Armenia.

Vahram Nercissiantz, chief economic adviser to the president of Armenia, said his country has undergone major economic, legal and political reforms since declaring independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, resulting in a more business-friendly climate.

``Armenia is the most open economy in the region with minimum tariffs,'' Nercissiantz said. ``Today about 75 percent of the economy is private and growing.''

Nercissiantz said there is an established banking system in place, as well as a legal structure based on western concepts of private property, freedom and sanctity of contracts.

``The rules are in place. You do the same things you do anywhere to set up a company,'' said Robinson, who spent five years in Armenia.

According to him, Armenian received about $600 million in foreign direct investment in the last decade, two thirds of which came in the past two years.

All agreed that for Armenia to prosper, it needs much more foreign investment.

``Now we are trying to establish solid democratic law and order and an open market economy,'' said Kevork Keushkerian, president of Tekeyan Cultural Association's Glendale and Pasadena chapter. ``How can you establish an open market economy if you don't have investors?''

Keushkerian, like many who attended the forum, sees trade as a way to lift his countrymen out of poverty and stem the tide of immigration to the United States.

``A lot of Armenians are leaving Armenia in search of jobs so they can send money back to their families,'' said Berdj Karapetian, president of the Glendale Chamber of Commerce. ``Many of them find their way here.

``For every dollar spent to assist Armenians here, a lot more jobs will be created in Armenia and a lot more good will be done (if we spend the money there).''