YEREVAN, December 14. /ARKA/. Armenia’s ambitious plan to become the regional financial centre is grounded on real factors, Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said on Monday.

“We enjoy relative advantages in financial and banking sectors, and we should use them,” he said.

The premier told journalists that Armenia’s financial system has proved to be highly prepared for the crisis.

Unlike other CIS countries’ banks, Armenian commercial banks have received not a single dram from the central bank and the government as financial assistance.

“Commercial banks showed quite high indicators of conformity normative, had sufficient liquidity and were able to serve their clients independently,” Sargsyan said.

Besides, he said, Armenia has never faced problems with depositors.

“Our citizens were freely using their right to deposit and withdraw their money and convert currencies.”

The premier said that this absence of problems at economic entities and banks differs Armenia from other CIS countries, whose banking systems were badly in need of billions of dollars for solving their problems.

Armenia is singled out among other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States for this circumstance.

At the same time, the premier pointed out that the global recession still bars Armenia from developing into the regional financial center.

To reach this goal, Armenia has to display its comparative and competitive advantages to the world market players to ensure high attractiveness and offer them those services Armenian financial market is able to provide.

“The niche we have chosen for transforming into a financial market is not actual amid the ongoing world crisis, and this circumstance has stricken hard at our concept,” Sargsyan said. “But we are convinced that after overcoming the crisis, we must show our niche and peculiarities on the world market and offer our specific services differing from those offered by other financial centers and attract world market players.”

The prime minister pointed out operational and deposit services on securities issued by the region’s countries, investment and asset-running funds, services for Islamic countries, financial reforms and financial services among Armenian communities worldwide as Armenia’s advantages.-0-