YEREVAN, MARCH 13, NOYAN TAPAN. An agreement on introduction of Lithuania's customs supervision experience in Armenia will be signed between the two countries under the EU TAIEX program by late 2009, Albert Harutyunian, the head of the Customs Supervision Department of the State Revenue Committee adjunct to Armenian government, announced on March 13. He said that the foreign ministries of Armenia and Lithuania are currently preparing the agreement. As for the impact of the global financial and economic crisis on Armenia's trade, A. Harutyunian said that the number of trucks that entered the country in January-March 2009 halved as compared with the same period of 2008. A decline was recorded in export sector as well, which he conditioned by the fact that January and February are months when most of agreements are signed, and thanks to their implmentation, business activity has already been observed in Armenia. In his opinion, under conditions of a floating exchange rate regime, businessmen will operate more confidently. "These tendencies will become stronger by May," he noted.

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