Saturday, 4 March 2017
Karen Karapetyan Instructs Department Heads to Submit Quarterly Progress Reports
Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan called another consultative meeting to discuss progress in the implementation of the government program. The ministries of Transport, Communications and Information Technologies, Education and Science, energy infrastructures and natural resources briefed the Prime Minister on the implementation of the priority tasks and activities in their areas. They reported back the pace of priority programs, reforms and the expected results. Reference was made to the course of ongoing investment programs.
The Prime Minister was briefed on the steps taken in this direction, including the launch of the projects, cooperation with the partners, financial sources, etc. Concerning the investment projects, the Premier gave clear-cut instructions, stating in part, “All those investment projects presented to the public should be divided by regions and according to the timetable. I am urging you to report progress on a quarterly basis.”
It was reported that USD119 million-worth investment projects are due to be implemented in the transport, communications and IT sector that have a tendency to grow, as some companies have already made a decision to increase the investment projects.
The priority projects are as follows: road building, launch of the process of establishing a national postal operator, promoting and continuously providing access to international IT companies, implementation of tax reform in the IT sector, training of highly qualified IT specialists, establishment of ICT data center, inter-community route network introduction. In connection with the latter, a concept of future global changes will soon be submitted to the Prime Minister.
The priorities in civil aviation are as follows: implementing activities to attract foreign aur carriers into the local market, including budget airlines, improvement in the quality of passenger services at the airports in Yerevan and Gyumri and elimination of red tape.
It was reported that the trend of growth in air passenger traffic will continue throughout this year. In particular, there was recorded a 24% increase in the first two months of this year as compared to the same period last year.
The priority projects in the field of science and education are as follows: transition to program budgeting, improving the quality of preschool education, continued development of pre-school institutions, formation of complete academic programs, reinstatement of foreign language-based schools, optimization of accommodation conditions in educational institutions, continued implementation of the pilot program referred to as “Sustainable School Catering” for pupils in grades 1-4, teacher training, dumping of high schools’ workload and implementation of optimization-oriented improvements.
The priorities of the Ministry of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources are as follows: identification of financial sources for energy sector-related investment projects worth USD 50 million, continued improvement of energy infrastructures, alternative energy development, and implementation of regional energy projects.
Summarizing the meeting, the Prime Minister referred to the deadlines set for the implementation of the assignments given to government agencies, stressing the importance of ensuring performance and discipline.
“I need to have a responsible group, accurate deadlines, what we are to achieve, what are the questions to answer, the proposed tasks and what effect we want to get. The strategy must be clear. It is clear that life will call for a change, and we will have to deviate from that vector, but at least we should understand where we are going,” Karen Karapetyan pointed out.
In conclusion, the Head of Government urged those present to continue making consistent efforts in the aforementioned areas and keep the subject under strict control.
