YEREVAN. – The Government of Armenia and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Monday signed the planning and co-financing agreements, which herald the start of the “Modernization of the Armenian National Border’s Bagratashen, Bavra and Gogavan Check Points” project.   

Finance Minister Vache Gabrielyan and State Revenue Committee Chairman Gagik Khachatryan signed the documents on behalf of Armenia’s Government, and UNDP Deputy Resident Representative Dirk Boberg signed them on behalf of UNDP.

Aside from modernizing Armenia’s aforementioned border checkpoints, this project also aims to improve their security systems, and to facilitate the people’s, transport vehicles, and goods’ legal flow between Armenia and Georgia, and, subsequently, toward EU countries. 

To implement this project, the Armenian Government had signed on August 7 a €30,316 million loan agreement with the European Investment Bank. Also, a €10.3 million loan agreement is envisioned to be signed with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). 

The project’s budget will also include the approximately €3.5 million grant, which the EU Eastern Partnership Project will allocate for Bavra and Bagratashen checkpoints, and UNDP’s funding worth approximately €0.8 million.