At the session of the temporary parliamentarian commission, which considers the Armenian Government activity in the telecommunication sphere, Minister of Justice David Harutyunian made public some details of the negotiations between the Government and "ArmenTel" management. In his words, besides the question of introduction of payment by minute for city internal telephone conversations, the matters of "ArmenTel" investment obligations to the Government of the Republic of Armenia and the governmental debts for communication services were also discussed in the course of the talks. Harutyunian reported that the Armenian Government's debt to "ArmenTel" made two billion 250 million Armenian drams, but "ArmenTel" agreed to remit all governmental debts accumulated before March 1998. In the words of the Minister, the Government of Armenia agreed to reduce "ArmenTel" obligatory investment 35 million US dollars. The Minister said that in the course of the negotiations "ArmenTel" committed itself to resolve the question of transmitting the automatic telephone systems of some 800 villages to digital format and to present a new investment program to the Government before March 2002. "Arminfo" agency reports that when commenting on the results of the talks the Chairman of the temporary parliamentary commission Vazgen Manukian expressed an opinion that increasing the free conversation time from 120 to 360 minutes is not a big achievement. He stressed that the fact remained the same that the condition of telecommunications in Armenia worsens from year to year instead of approaching the world standards.