YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, NOYAN TAPAN. The amendment to the Law on Securities Market will provide the Armenian government with a legislative opportunity to sign an agreement on sale of the Armenian stock exchange and depository with Swedish-Finnish company OMX AB. The chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) Tigran Sargsian told this to reporters at the end of the discussion of the bill on the amendment to the indicated law and the legislative package related to it at the RA National Assembly on October 10. According to him, the agreement will be signed in late October and early November - immediately after the law will come into force. "Following this, the stock exchange business will be conducted by market rules in Armenia. It means that we open the way for foreign investors, allowing them to make investments and develop the stock exchange and the depository in our country," the CBA chairman stated. At the same time T. Sargsian pointed out that there are many norms used in international practice which have not yet been included in the law. In his words, the Law on Securities Market will be improved step by step: in 2008, a new legislative package will be submitted and an attempt will be made to use new mechanisms and principles in parallel with developing the market. On the same day the National Assembly discussed in second and third reading the indicated legislative package, whose adoption will be voted on soon.

---