Memorandum on up-to-date oncological center signed in Armenia.

Armen Khachaturyan, Executive Director of the National Competitiveness Foundation of Armenia, and Haig Bagerdjian, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Global Medical Solutions (GMS-, Belgium, signed a cooperation memorandum at the Armenian government, on Monday.

Under the memorandum, an up-to-date oncological center is to be founded at the Yerevan Institute of Physics. The center will be equipped with a Cyclotron, a diagnostic center and PET scanners.

The center will practice radioisotope treatment.

Following the signing ceremony, Haig Bagerdjian said that founding the center will inaugurate the process of making hopes come true.

“Some states that are much greater than Armenia have not such equipment yet,” he said.

The €30m center program is being implemented due to the state-private sector cooperation.

Khachatryan said that the center is expected to serve not only Armenia’s population, but also the entire region. “The quality of its services will not at all be inferior to that of centers of international level,” he said.

Khachatryan also said that the cost of services will be affordable for the population.

Armenian specialists will operate the equipment after adopting foreign experts’ experience. The construction is to be launched this July to be completed at the end of 2012.

About 2,700 people develop cancer in Armenia yearly, which causes an annual damage of AMD 75m.

In 1995, 125 cancer cases per 100,000 were registered in Armenia, with 185 cases in 2000 and 235 in 2011.