“The percentage of the unemployment of the youth – aged from 18 to 25, is too high – 37%, the external debt-GDP ratio is already very high, the expenses of the service of external debt are very high alike. The flow of the foreign direct investments is correspondingly very low”, Heghine Minasyan, the Executive Director of Caucasus Research Resource Center – Armenia expressed her concern. Mrs. Minasyan and other experts represented the results of Human Development report at the UN Office in Armenia.
In 2015, the index of human development (HDI) in Armenia has been scored 0.743, which has been ranked as one of the top results among 188 countries and regions, taking the 84th place. From 1990 to 2015 the index has increased by 17.2%, the life expectancy has increased by 7.0 years and the expected education duration – by 2.0 years, meanwhile, Gross National Product per capita has recorded 122.0% growth,
As reported by the experts, the HDI of Armenia is low compared to the average 0.746 index of the countries having high HDI, as well as the average 0.756 index of Europe’s and Central Asia’s countries. Iran’s HDI is 69, Georgia’s HDI is 70, Azerbaijan’s HDI is 78, and Russian Federation’s HDI is 49.
The Minister of Labor and Social Matters Artem Asatryan was asked what we are going to do to reach 4 million population in 2040 as mentioned by Serzh Sargsyan. He was also asked whether population growth is possible with this speed of emigration. Pursuant to the minister, the creation of basic preconditions due to which we will have immigration is the core of the Demographic National Program.
To our review implying that the demographers predict that in 2025 the number of deaths will exceed the number of births, Mr. Asatryan refered saying that in the forthcoming years the number of women of reproductive age will decrease conditioned by the birth decrease in 2000.
Lusine BUDAGHYAN
