Tuesday, 21 January 2014
Artem Asatryan Introduces 2014 Priorities, 2013 Achievements
During the news conference, which was held today at the Government Press Center, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Artem Asatryan introduced the past year’s achievements and the 2014 priorities in the field of social protection. He advised that preparations for the pilot program of integrated social services was brought to completion in the period under review, information infrastructure, including a new database, related to the mandatory pension savings component was developed and implemented.
According to the Minister, unemployment in Armenia stood at 16.2% in late 2013, down from 17.3 percent last year. He noted that a new law on employment was enacted last year in a bid to abide by a flexible policy based on the objective situation in the labor market. “We attach great importance to the testing and implementation of new active labor market programs.”
Speaking of the achievements, the Minister said that 19 integrated social services centers were commissioned last year to provide “one-stop-shop” services to the population.
A. Asatryan reported that the deposit compensation program for the 2005-2006 savings was completed in 2013, resulting in about 10 billion drams paid out to the population. The program shall be continued in 2014.
