From World Bank office in Yerevan, Armenia CRRC-Armenia Country Director Heghine Manasyan and Program Manager Arsen Aslanyan held a presentation on migration and remittances within AIPRG’s annual conference on May 17-18, 2008. The conference was hosted at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington, DC, and for the first time this year program included three presentations from Yerevan. The two day conference entitled “Looking Forward: Global Competitiveness of the Armenian Economy” had sessions on exchange rate dynamics, productivity and market structure, the competitiveness of the Armenian economy and growth, tourism and IT, the role of Diaspora, education and more.

Based on data from CRRC DI surveys Heghine and Arsen reported on some migration related phenomena and trends that could impact Armenia’s further development and position in the South Caucasus region. The presentation revealed follow up questions on the objective of the survey, data availability on investment in human capital and brain drain.