OREANDA-NEWS. December 25, 2007. On December 21, a press conference of the Minister of Trade and Economic Development Nerses Yeritsyan and the President of ALROSA Mr Sergey Vybornov was held at the Ministry of Trade and Economic Development of Armenia. Russian ALROSA diamond exploration and cutting company plans to export $28-$30 Mln rough diamonds to Armenia, the press office of Armenian Ministry of Trade and Economic Development reports.

ALROSA Vice-President Sergey Ulin reported that the company plans to hold another meeting to discuss the results of the first six months of its cooperation with Armenia and determine the parameters of cooperation with possible corrections toward larger supplies not only for the end of next year, but also for 2009, he said.

Minister of Trade and Economic Development, Nerses Yeritsyan expressed hope that the ALROSA Company will put its plans into practice within the next few years.

"We have much to do to specify the policy and prospects for development to amplify the opportunities for business expansion in Armenia by such a large company as ALROSA, and not only in diamond processing," the Minister said.

The Chairman of the International Association of Armenian Jewellers, owner of the DCA diamond-cutting enterprise, member of the RA Parliament Gagik Abramyan said that experts of the ALROSA Company are expected to pay a regular visit to Armenia next July to conduct inspections at the country.s diamond-cutting enterprises.

"The issue of increasing the number of Armenian diamond-cutting companies meeting the ALROSA-set terms will be considered," he said.

Abramyan pointed out that cooperation in two directions will be carried out next year.

"At a meeting with President Robert Kocharyan we talked about the purchase of rough diamonds as well as about the supply of diamonds for further processing and re-export," he said.

This October, ALROSA experts conducted inspections and made assessments of 23 Armenian diamond-cutting companies. Thereafter, they selected four Armenian enterprises that will process rough diamonds worth $1mln supplied by ALROSA - Daymotek Company, Arevakn, SCA and Ukos.

On August 6, 2007, in Yerevan, the RA Government and the ALROSA Company signed an agreement on cooperation in jewellery and diamond-cutting industries. The agreement envisages the supply of rough diamonds to Armenia for processing and re-export. Under the agreement, Armenian diamond-cutting enterprises are to process rough diamonds 0.30 to 1.5 carats, which process is economically unsound in Russia.

Russia is one of the largest suppliers of rough diamonds - 1/3% of the world diamond output. Armenia, in turn, has many professional diamond-cutters capable of processing up to 1mln carats yearly.

The ALROSA Company is of the world.s largest diamond-extracting company, its share in the world output being 25%. In 2006, the ALROSA Group sold products worth $2.86bln, with the sale of cut diamonds totaling $141.1Mln. ALROSA's stockholders are Rosimuschestvo (Russian Property) (37%), the Ministry of State property Management of Yakutia (32%), individuals and legal entities (23%). Eight Yakut uluses hold 8% of the ALROSA shares.