Thursday, 17 February 2011
14.000 farmers to get free seeds
A cabinet sitting was held today under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan
To proceed with the actions envisaged under the Community Farming Resource Management and Competitiveness Facility, the Ministry of Agriculture was allocated USD 450 thousand- equivalent drams to be reimbursed after approval and effectiveness of said credit facility. The program will be supported by the World Bank through USD 16.0 million worth of IDA loan facility. Pasture management and animal husbandry development projects have already been prepared for 5 communities, with 21 others being in process of preparation. Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan appreciated the program and noted that it has a total cost of USD 23mn and is supposed to bring about serious reform in dozens of rural communities. If successful, the program may attract extra funds in future.
The government decided that as approved by the tender commission consisting of Ministry of Agriculture, Public Council, territorial administration and civil society representatives, eligible cooperatives from border and high-mountain regions will have the possibility of getting 61 tractors and other machinery available under the Japanese Government’s “Grant support for needy farmers” program. According to the Prime Minister, the question had been considered in all its aspects: people in the countryside need assuring that they will get State support if consolidated.
The Executive endorsed Armenia’s barley cultivation development program for 2011. To this end, the Ministry of Agriculture has authorized importers to bring in 2 tons of first-reproduction spring barley seeds from Ukraine and Russia. Noting that the cabinet sitting was getting a clear-cut agricultural bias, Tigran Sargsyan said that the imported seeds will be distributed free of charge among some 14 thousand farms as part of a welfare package. Additional thousand tons of seeds may be imported, if needed. The Ministry of Agriculture was told to do everything to rule out any misuse of public funds.
The government decided to accord a 3-year VAT payment deferral to Aparazh Mining Ltd and Liquor CJSC for more than AMD 300mn worth of imports and backed the draft agreement s to be signed between the Ministry of Economy and said entities. Aparazh Mining has invested AMD 453mn into the construction of a modern plant of emulsion-based explosive materials with at least 35 new jobs , while Liquor CJSC is going to build a 3200 square meter wide new medicinal drug production unit with AMD 416.6mn worth of investment and 25 new jobs. Pharmaceutics was said to have been gaining momentum in the country as evidenced by Arpimed Ltd’s newly commissioned production line. Several companies were accorded tax holidays to a total amount of AMD 25bn. The government’s initiative proved quite successful and effective.
A dozen decisions passed by the cabinet seek to enact such laws as may facilitate the company registration procedure and get the “one-stop-shop” principle through the executive circuit. Henceforth, it will be easier to get trade marks, State registration and taxpayer identity numbers, as well as to use State-run data bases and online resources etc.
The government amended dozens of previous decisions in a bid to lift the mandatory requirement of having a seal for economic entities. This is supposed to help improve the business environment and introduce the culture of online paperwork.
The meeting agenda featured some 40 items altogether.
