On June 21 the 28th meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of member states of Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) took place in Odessa where Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Edward Nalbandian assumed the Presidency of the Organization for the term of six months until 31 December 31 2013.

In his speech at the Ministerial meeting the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia pointed out that BSEC Organization enters to the 22th year of its activity with a new agenda of economic partnership.

Minister Nalbandian underlined that Armenia makes active steps towards the materialization of the new agenda of the Organization and foster a mutually beneficial cooperation in the region.

Armenia has initiated the second phase of creating “Technology Transfer Network” which was initiated by Armenia and has a great importance for the development of information technologies in the region. The preparatory work to create the Association of the BSEC Information and Ccommunication Technologies is also continued.

During the Armenian presidency in BSEC Organization a meeting of high-ranking officials of the IT sphere will be held in Yerevan in parallel to the “Digitec 2013” annual exhibition.

Turning to the question of increasing the efficiency of BSEC, the Armenian Foreign Minister underlined the due implementation of the provisions of documents adopted in the framework of the Organization as well as the necessity of modernization of the agendas of BSEC working groups.

The Minister stressed the importance of improvement of cooperation with international organizations, BSEC adjacent bodies, observers and spherical dialog partners as well as reforms of the Secretariat of the Organization and the importance of the principle of equal representation.

During the meeting several decisions concerning the operation of the Organization were adopted by the BSEC Foreign Ministers. Assuming the presidency Minister Nalbandian emphasized that Armenia gives a great importance to exerting new efforts for fostering economic partnership in BSEC region and advance the efficiency of the organization as well as enhancing its authority in the international area.