Cement production is matter of preserving employment, said Prosperous Armenia Party MP Mikayel Melkumyan during the meeting at the Armenian Parliament on Thursday.

According to MP, the subject of the discussion is to increase import duties on cement clinker, an intermediate product for cement production.

“Clinker is concentrated cement. Cement production from limestone, in essence, means the consumption of 60% of energy resources, 15% of raw materials and 10% of wages. In the case of cement production via using clinker, different technological processes will be carried out. And for Gagik Tsarukyan (the owner of the plant for the production of cement, the chair of the Prosperous Armenia Party and its parliamentary faction - ed.) It would be more profitable to import clinker, but the problem lies in the local production of raw materials and in the preserving employment,” he noted.

The Armenian parliament recently passed a law establishing a duty on cement imports from Iran and other countries in the amount of 22 thousand drams per ton. However, this did not satisfy the Prosperous Armenia Party deputies, who demanded that the duty be set on the import of clinker.