Monday, 5 December 2011
Economic seminar organized by the Republican Party of Armenia was held today at Tumo Center for Creative Technologies in Yerevan, chaired by Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan. The seminar was dedicated to the three main directions of the industry: Precision Engineering, Pharmaceuticals and Brandy Production. After the seminar the Prime Minister answered the questions of the journalists.
Tigran Sargsyan: The first economic seminar organized by the Republican Party of Armenia was held today, which we consider as a new platform that allows the Republican Party to discuss the problems facing our country with its partners and find solutions for them. Economic policy of sectoral exports was chosen today, which was developed by the Government; the Republican Party decided to discuss this project with its partners, inviting all the parties presented in the National Assembly, as well as public organizations, non-governmental organizations that are involved in researching works. The aim is to organize public debates on important projects, ensuring the involvement of all the forces, so that as a result we will have programs that can support the community. I think that today’s discussions have shown that the selected format is quite effective, as it received the positive opinion of our partners and the private sector.
Question: Your main opponents have expressed an opinion that the present team is not capable of carrying out this project. What can you say about this?
Tigran Sargsyan: The representatives of the opposition parties rated this project highly in terms of content and approaches and noted that it is the first time during the last 20 years that there has been a radical change in the economic policy of Armenia. They also rated positively the professional preparedness of this project.
Referring to the political statements, I think that the main issue of our agenda was not related to the political discussions on how to come to power and what programs to implement for that. I do not think it would be appropriate to change the course of this seminar to another level.
Question: Is this project going to be mandatory, and who will be responsible for its implementation? Given that the program is designed for 9 years, isn’t there a concern it should be amended over time?
Tigran Sargsyan: I think Vazgen Manukyan and Artsvin Minasyan gave a good definition of that issue, estimating that such projects can become not only the property of a one party but the property of all the parties that share the ideas presented in the projects. This will guarantee the implementations of such projects no matter what kind of new format will be in the parliament or after the elections. The fundamental new approach lies in the fact that a new platform should be formed for the implementation of such projects, which should not only come from the Government, but also from the cooperation between the state and the private sector. The private sector will also take part in the adoption according to the new format. This is the main feature of this project.
Question: What impact will the development of the spheres presented in the project have on GDM growth?
Tigran Sargsyan: As already mentioned, we have chosen 11 sectors of economy. It is clear that we cannot make the whole idea of the gross domestic product by these 11 sectors only, but you can see that in the 3 concrete branches that we discussed today the growth rates of up to 2020 are quite high. Pharmaceuticals will increase by about 10 times in 10 years, exports level of brandy production will reach from 100 million USD to 180 million USD. This means that the implementation of this project can contribute significantly to ensure a high rate of economic rate, as well to economic diversification. Obviously, if some sectors ensure the economic growth, others do quite the opposite. In this regard, in the macro-economic forecast we will also take into consideration the negative trends.
Question: It has already been pointed out that such project requires a serious human resource potential. What steps will be taken to provide the implementation of the project with professional personnel?
Tigran Sargsyan: First of all, let me say that this new structural approach suggests that the educational institutions will have a clearer idea of what kind of personnel qualities certain sectors will demand. It also implies that the state and the private sector will cooperate with all the educational institutions, forming a state demand on one hand and creating departments in private enterprises on the other. This convinces us that we will have a much more efficient training system than we had before. The experience we have gained is evidence that when the private sector formulates a precise requirement of manpower, the state is obligated to make additional investments. In particular, we already have such requirement in the IT sector and we take it into account within the state order, as well as direct additional financial resources to specific professional trainings in specific universities. I believe that this approach will bring revolutionary changes in the university system during the next 5 years.
Question: You have expressed a concern about the demographic picture. Are there any plans to solve this problem?
Tigran Sargsyan: I think that this project can have a positive impact from the following point of view: if the professionals have a clear idea about the development of the field until 2020, they can connect their future with this or that field. When young people make a career choice, having a clear sense of a long-term stability of the state, they will feel confident, which is extremely important when they are building their future and connecting it with Armenia. Naturally, there are other improvements as well, which should solve this issue. It is not only related to economic, industrial and structural policy. In particular, the pension reforms that make the people think and connect their lives with our country for at least 30-35 years. Such measures also create favorable conditions for the young people to give preference to living in Armenia. Of course, we can add the improvements in the health, social fields, the programs that we have been implementing to promote the second and third child birth rate, etc. We believe that all this combined can create more favorable conditions.
