Funding after format is determined
"No matter what happens and even if there are no donor states and organizations, the census will take place on October 28-30," stressed head of the Department of Census and Demography of the Armenian National Statistical Service Karine Kuyumjyan in an interview with "A1+". Kuyumjyan mentioned that the service has prepared everything for the census.
The experimental census was supposed to take place on April 14-23 and include 1 percent of the entire population of the Republic of Armenia, but the RA government decided to postpone it during its last session.
Karine Kuyumjyan mentioned that the reason for postponing the census was because all international donors are currently determining "the procedures for discussing the functions of their organizations and can't say whether they can implement the project in its entirety by the end of April or not."
"The donors were aware of the period for the experimental census in advance, but they have to determine the start and end of the fiscal year, the itinerary for approving new projects which they can't, match with another country," said Kuyumjyan, adding that the project has been presented to them for discussion in any case.
On January 18, the World Bank held a meeting with the donors who envisaged 6.7 million dollars for the census in Armenia. Out of the 6.7 million, the RA Ministry of Finance could provide only 21 percent and the rest had to be provided by the donors. Currently, the World Bank's "Trust Fund", Italy, Norway and India have expressed willingness to support funding. According to Karine Kuyumjyan, India will only take part in the actual census, while the other donors are still determining how they will support the census.
The UN Population Fund will also support the experimental census with 30,000 dollars. Mrs. Kuyumjyan stressed once again the need for the census. "Since the actual census is expensive, we must do everything possible to avoid making mistakes."
The actual census will be held on October 12-21, 2011 and it has remained unchanged. The census will be held and the results will be analyzed in the course of 5 years (2009-2013). Based on results of the 2001 census, the total number of permanent residents was 3,213,011 people and according to a calculation on January 1, 2009, that number was 3,238,000.
