President Kocharian met on 23 September with Arkadii Ghukasian and Anushavan Danielian, the president and prime minister of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, to discuss the socioeconomic situation in the enclave. Danielian told RFE/RL's Armenian Service that he believes Armenia should increase its annual financial assistance to Karabakh from 9 billion drams ($16.07 million) to 12 billion drams given that Stepanakert does not impose either customs duties or VAT on goods imported from Armenia. He calculated that such taxes would have brought Karabakh an additional 6 billion drams annually. The Karabakh budget for 2002 envisages 12.35 million drams in expenditures and only 2.84 billion drams in revenues, which means the Armenian aid covers the budget deficit. Danielian predicted that foreign direct investment will exceed $5 million this year and rise "dramatically" in 2003. (RFE/RL)