The key mission of the newly formed interim parliamentary subcommittee on Nairit is to develop a program to restart the plant, MP from ARFD Artsvik Minasyan said in the Armenian Parliament on Monday.
He said that the ruling Republican Party will have no more than 50% of the seats in the subcommittee. The committee is supposed to consider possibilities for restarting the plant and to protect the staff and possible investments.
Nairit has bee standing idle for quite a while already, with its employees haven't been paid wages for as long as 15 months. The plant's debts total 50bln AMD or $130mln (including 5bln AMD in unpaid wages). In the 1980s Nairit had almost 10-12% of the global rubber market. In 2006 90% of Nairit Plant was sold to Rhinoville Property Limited for $40mln. The remaining 10% is owned by the Armenian Government. Since Apr 2010 the plant has been idle, with its shares given as security against the CIS InterStateBank's loan.