Thursday, 13 January 2011
Armenian citizens to feel the impact of reforms
This year’s first cabinet sitting was held today, chaired by Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan.
Extending Season’s congratulations to the members of government, the Prime Minister wished them efficacious and fruitful work ahead. Tigran Sargsyan congratulated newly appointed Minister of Agriculture Sergo Karapetyan and expressed hope that those challenges facing the sector will be coped with successfully during the year. Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Armen Movsisyan was offered birthday congratulations.
The meeting approved the government’s program of action and its priorities, as well as the underlying principles for the year 2011. Highlighting the adoption of the program, the Prime Minister gave a broad description of the priorities (Tigran Sargsyan’s introductory remarks and the summary description of 2011 activities are posted separately on the website).
The government approved the 2011 program of State support for small and medium-size enterprises, which emphasizes the role of SMEs in ensuring growth and higher living standards for the population, generating new jobs and so on. Tigran Sargsyan deemed it necessary to harmonize the set of SME-related programs, especially as 5-6% increase is envisaged for this sphere in 2011. In this regard, we are in for an exceptional year. Lending interest rates have been reduced by 2-3% in the banks while resources available to this end have increased. Now the bankers are interested in having as many borrowers as possible since they have sufficient spare liquidity.
To ensure reliability and due control over eventual frauds in the system of mandatory vehicle insurance, the meeting endorsed the procedures applicable to the exchange of information between the MVI system and the database of the road police service as well as the inventory of information eligible for sharing.
Head of Police Alik Sargsyan was told to personally monitor this highly important measure considering that the MVI campaign will soon yield the expected result.
The Executive backed the 2011 program of tourism expansion, aimed at keeping on turning Armenia into a tourism-friendly country for travelers worldwide.
The meeting backed the proposal on signing an arrangement between the governments of Armenia and Russia on cooperation in the field of military courier and postal services.
The government amended a previous decision to order the use of all-resistant self-pasted stamps in the service of cash-registers. Owing to this amendment, domestic taxpayers will no longer need to turn to tax authorities for replacement of cash-register seals.
The meeting considered a legislative initiative proposed by a group of MPs concerning the celebration of November 10 as Local Self-Government Day in Armenia. The Executive appeared to have no objections against the proposal in principle.
A series of other legislative initiatives were on the agenda.
The meeting passed some thirty decisions altogether.
