Thursday, 2 July 2015
Government Holds Meeting
A Cabinet sitting was held today, chaired by Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan.
Before passing to the agenda, the Prime Minister made an introductory speech, in which he stated in part, “Dear colleagues, you may be aware that on June 30, we joined the academic world, the business sector and non-governmental organizations at the Economic Agenda conference to thoroughly discuss the challenges facing our economy, including long-term strategies and short-term steps to address them. There were emotional speeches at the conference, healthy criticism and concrete suggestions. I wish to repeat the message I voiced during the conference. We are open to discuss any reasonable proposal and program. Any suggestion that will help advance our common cause will be appreciated. Armenia needs the joint efforts of all parties concerned and healthy work. The conference showed that there is a need for such discussions. I think the discussions should be held in a different format: they ought to be more streamlined, including the potential for greater expertise, greater specialization and industry. I hereby instruct all the ministers to organize similar discussions, and the Economy Ministry - to uphold the debate.”
The Government decided to allocate around AMD4.4 billion to regional administrations to deal with priority challenges faced in the provinces, inclusive of school building, culture, water supply, irrigation and other key issues.
“This project is deemed to be crucial. This is why we decided to draw upon our limited resources and allocate AMD 4 billion 395 million from the reserve fund to complete the proposed emergency projects in rural communities,” Hovik Abrahamyan said and instructed the Minister of Territorial Administration and Emergency Situations to join the Minister of Healthcare in a bid to improve the sanitary conditions in kindergartens.”
By allowing a 3-year extension to the VAT deferment period on imported equipment worth over 200 million drams, the Government supported another large-scale investment program: H & T Hakobyans LLC is going to launch a beer production line in Dilijan town of Armenia. The nearly 630 million dram-worth project will help create some 60 jobs.
To boost exports and attract new investment, the Government established a steering committee for the Trade Promotion and Quality Infrastructure Project. The meeting approved the Committee’s by-laws and composition.
The Government decided to set up a personal data protection agency within the Ministry of Justice. The meeting discussed and approved its terms of reference, structure, the procedure to follow by non-governmental organizations to name a candidate for the post of authorized entity head. An appropriate amount of money was earmarked for organizing the activities of the new agency.
The meeting discussed a number of legislative initiatives for 2015. The Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs was allocated AMD39.8 million to make it available to the World Committee on Pan-Armenian Games NGO in order to cover the costs of Syrian delegation’s participation in the 6th Summer Pan-Armenian Games due on August 2-13.
