Fake news about the new factory in Merdzavan

AntiFake.am website has prepared an “investigative” article about the home appliances factory in the Merdzavan community of Armavir marz. According to the publication, although the factory was opened in December last year, it has not been registered in the State Register of Legal Entities of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia and, in fact, does not exist.

The Public Relations and Information Center SNCO under the Staff of the RA Prime Minister has refuted the allegations in the media, calling them disinformation. The refutation was based on the press release issued by IMG Group, which stated that “the TVs manufactured by the company are already on the market and can be found  in the “Eldorado” electrical appliances store.”

To find out if there is an existing factory for the production of home appliances in the Merdzavan community, a Fip.am reporter visited the plant site. It is located to the south of Merdzavan village.

Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan participated in the opening ceremony of the factory on December 5, 2018. The press release posted on the RA Prime Minister’s website states that the factory is owned by IMG Group CJSC. It should be noted that the claims that this company is not registered in the State Register do not correspond to the reality. It was registered on November 30, 2018. Consequently, both AntiFake.am and the media disseminating the publication have spread disinformation.

According to the State Revenue Committee’s Classification of Economic Activities, “IMG Group” CJSC carries out an unknown activity.

There is no information on the number of registered employees at the “1000 Drams” Fund website. It should be reminded that according to the publication on the Prime Minister’s website, the factory should have 70-80 jobs at the initial stage.

The satellite photo of the factory site as of July 9, 2018 is shown below. During our visit we revealed that the outer tuff boundary of the area has been extended (marked in red).

It is noteworthy that during the visit of the FIP.am journalist, Head of Merdzavan community Levon Grigoryan was also there. In response to the journalist’s question on whether the factory is operating at this stage on a regular basis, the security guard responded that he needed to clarify it with the management and invited the journalist out of the plant area. About five minutes later, the employee said that he could not say anything.

Our journalist also visited the “Eldorado” electrical appliances chain store in Avan to find out if “TVs manufactured by the factory are already in the market”. It turned out that the above information is also not true. The country of production of the 81cm AD32M1100 model TVs displayed and advertised in the store is China, but the writing on the boxes in Arabic indicates Jordan as the product packaging country. There is no mention of the Armenian origin of the product. The specialist of the store also stated that the product is Chinese-made and noted that there are no TVs of Armenian production in any of “Eldorado” electrical appliances stores.

It results that the information provided by The Public Relations and Information Center SNCO regarding the disinformation on the registration of the company is correct, but the center in its turn has spread disinformation basing its statements on the clarification provided by “IMG Group” CJSC.

Thus, both AntiFake.am and the Public Relations and Information Center SNCO have disseminated disinformation since there is actually an IMG Group registration certificate, but there is no relevant product in the market.

We should also note that the dissemination of such information by the Public Relations and Information Center SNCO under the Staff of the RA Prime Minister contradicts the Charter of the organization, as the SNCO does not have the authority to perform such a function.