YEREVAN, DECEMBER 4, NOYAN TAPAN. The signing of the agreement on the Environemntal Protection and Women's Entrepreneurship Developement in Rural Areas project by the Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) and HSBC Bank Armenia CJSC took place at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Yerevan on December 4. The agreement was signed by Garo Armen, COAF Founder and Chairman of Board, and Tim Slater, Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Bank Armenia. The project's budget is 36 thousand USD, 25 thousand USD of which is provided as a grant by the bank, and 11 thousand USD is allocated by COAF. The purpose is to organize production and wide use of environmentally friendy, reuse bags made of cloth, which will replace paper and plastic bags. According to the project's executives, the project is unique and long-term as it will solve a number of problems peculiar to rural areas of Armenia. In the words of G. Armen, this cooperation of a charitable organization and a financial company is an excellent example aimed at ensuring a clean and safe environment and encouraging women's entrepreneurship in rural communities. Another partner of the project is the network of supermarkets "Star", which, like HSBC Bank Armenia CJSC, does not pursue any interest while participating in the project. T. Slater stated that by tradition, their bank implements charitable projects for vulnerable groups of the population and for children's education, but it agreed to cooperate with COAF on this project which will help ctreate not only a clean environment, but also a stable business environment. Director of "Star" network Vahan Kerobian announced that they had expressed a willingness to buy the first set of bags (1,000 ones) for their trade network. It is envisaged introducing a system of bonuses to encourage customers to use bags repeatedly.

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