Thursday, 27 December 2018
Government to provide financial assistance to former MoD system servicemen in order to address their housing problems
A regular Cabinet meeting was held today, chaired by Acting First Deputy Prime Minister Ararat Mirzoyan.
The Ministry of Defense will be allocated 5 billion 705 million drams from the Government’s Reserve Fund as the Government’s share in the co-financed welfare program to address the housing needs of those servicemen who had been on the shortlist of beneficiaries but did not get housing during their active service and were demobilized for health, age considerations or were retired following several years of service.
The Government passed a decision “on recognizing the area covering Abovyan, Pavstos Buzand, Yeznik Koghbatsi and Arami streets as a zone of prevailing public interest. Note that under Yerevan’s general plan, the Old Yerevan historical-architectural project will be implemented on the main avenue, covering the area between Abovyan, Pavstos Buzand, Yeznik Koghbatsi and Arami streets.
With reference to this decision, Acting First Deputy Prime Minister Ararat Mirzoyan noted: “It is not a secret to anyone that the building up of this particular site is one of the most difficult issues that our government inherited, and indeed, it is not a secret that the previous decisions on acknowledging a particular area as a zone of prevailing public interest have had a bad record. Now we are forced to take such an extreme step to complete the project, but we must have all the guarantees, we must make every effort to make sure that this process will not be carried out in the same notorious way as it used to be before. We must have 100% guarantees and control so that residents should not become victims of arbitrariness.”
Acting Minister of Territorial Administration and Development Suren Papikyan noted that this issue will be kept in the spotlight. He noted that EMC JSC, which has purchased the area, has provided appropriate guarantees.
The Government approved master plans for Zvartnots International Airport and Shirak Airport in Gyumri in 2018-2022. According to the reference note, about USD 38.2 million shall be invested to enforce the ICAO safety standards at the aforementioned airports.
The Government made a decision aimed at streamlining the activities of Ministry-affiliated public councils. This will help increase public participation; enhance transparency and accountability in the activities of ministries.
Stressing the importance of this decision, Ararat Mirzoyan noted: “As a matter of fact, this is a commitment that we have assumed in the framework of the Open Governance Partnership program. However, I think that we should not treat this as an obligation that simply needs to be fulfilled just because we have contracted a specific commitment. We have to abide by quite a constructive position with regard to these councils because they can act as a crucial link between the executive authority and society in terms of two-way communication and sustained dialogue.”
