YEREVAN. - A public-private machine and tractor station will be opened in Armenia. The results of the tender for the management company were approved at the Cabinet session on Thursday.

Only one company, Idas LLC, responded to the proposal of the state. The company will invest 242 million AMD, while the state will add 700 AMD (approx. $1,4 million) to it. These funds will be used for obtaining agricultural equipment. Its investor will procure and in four years return the cost with interests in the amount of 926 million.

Acting PM Karen Karapetyan noted that originally different agreement was reached: 80 percent was to be invested by the private investor and only 20 percent by the state. However, it turned out exactly the other way round.

Acting Minister of Agriculture Ignati Araqelyan, for his part, noted that the project was first proposed to Russian investors but none of them took interest in it. And because only one Armenian company responded to the proposal, they had to compromise on the terms.

Nevertheless, the loaning of equipment to farmer will raise the mechanization of agriculture, and thus its effectiveness, the acting PM said.