The regional forum “Effective management and participation: the Black Sea region” was held in Yerevan with the assistance of Yerevan Municipality and on the initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Austria. About sixty representatives from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Ukraine, Turkey, Georgia and Armenia took park in the forum organized in Armenia for the first time.

 The Deputy Mayor David Ohanyan, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the RA Ashot Hovakimyan, the Chairman of the Association of the Communities of Armenia, co-chairman of the Conference of the Regional and Local Authorities for the Eastern Partnership EminYeritsyan were also present at the forum.

The programs aimed at effectiveness increase in management of local self-governance systems particularly related to e-governance, were presented during the forum.

Greeting the participants of the forum on behalf of Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan, David Ohanyan stressed that such discussions make it possible to get acquainted with effective solutions to the problems of common interest, as well as to have experience exchange between the leading specialists from different countries. Deputy Mayor also stressed the importance of citizens’ involvement and participation.

“We are sure that the participation of the citizens in decision making must become an essential part of modern democracy and management. In this regard we have already got certain achievements. In particular, Yerevan has taken the 5th line in the list of the world cities with best e-governance rates. From the point of view of use convenience the official website of Yerevan Municipality takes the first place. This is testified by the studies carried out by the School of Public Affairs and Administration of Rutgers University of Newark, New Jersey, USA since 2003. I am sure that the forum will contribute to cooperation development and establishment of new ties between the cities of the Black Sea region”, said Deputy Mayor David Ohanyan.

The Chief Executive of  “Go-Governance” institute of Vienna, Professor Melanie Sally stressed the importance of holding the forum in Yerevan noting that Yerevan had already achieved definite success in this field and it would become a firm basis for further cooperation in mentioned above directions.

Within the scope of the forum a new book “Effective management and participation: the Black Sea region” was presented.

Information and Public Relations Department
of the City Hall of Yerevan