The Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, on Saturday participated in the official opening of the cotton yarn plant in Maralik town.

The co-owners of this plant are Gevorg Gasparyan and well-known Swiss Armenian businessman Vartan Sirmakes.

“We [Armenia] will finally be free from the dependence abroad [in terms of raw material],” Gasparyan said, in particular, speaking to reporters. “The size of the product reaches the size of the production in the whole Soviet Union.”

He added that they have been granted a 13 million-dram concession from the Armenian government and are also planning to expand the area of this plant and manufacture new cotton products.

Shirak Province Governor Tigran Petrosyan also was on hand at the opening ceremony of this cotton yarn plant.