Wednesday, 11 July 2007
RA Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan received UNDP Permanent Representative in Armenia, UN Resident Coordinator Consuelo Vidal.
First of all, Ms. Vidal conveyed UN Secretary General's congratulations and best wishes on Mr. Sargsyan's assumption of office as RA Prime Minister. Then she noted with satisfaction that the priorities outlined in the National Assembly-endorsed 5-year government program were in full harmony with those highlighted by the United Nations which opened up vast opportunities for future cooperation between the GoA and the UN agencies operating in Armenia.
Highly appreciative of the fruitful cooperation maintained between Armenia-based UN agencies, especially, the UNDP through its field office in Armenia, Mr. Sargsyan noted that the Government was going to reconsider the Poverty Reduction Strategic Program that might include enhanced level of interaction with the United Nations bearing in mind that poverty reduction had always been high on the Millenium development agenda of the United Nations. Serzh Sargsyan emphasized the necessity of holding public discussions throughout the whole process of PRSP revision and added that the future program was supposed to be sufficiently accurate and substantiated so as to be quite realistic. According to the Prime Minister, this might raise the level of public trust in the Program.
Speaking of the need of focusing efforts towards the implementation of fundamental and key government papers, namely the Government Program, the National Security Strategy of the Republic of Armenia and the Poverty Reduction Strategic Paper, the Prime Minister stressed that any future government instrument would have to conform the goals specified in the above-said programs.
Consuelo Vidal assured that whereas the above programs were closely tied up with each other and featured similar priorities, the United Nations, in its capacity of GoA partner, would be glad to continue cooperating under these papers and was prepared to support the development programs of our country.
