A regular Cabinet meeting was held today, chaired by Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan.
Before proceeding to the agenda, the Prime Minister gave a number of instructions. Regarding the inspection reform, the Premier gave instructions to ministers of justice, finance, emergency, healthcare, economic development and investment, transport, communications and information technologies, science and education, environmental protection, energy, infrastructure and natural resources, the Chairman of State Urban Planning Committee, the State Revenue Committee and the State Committee of Real Estate Cadastre by Government.
“Everyone for his part during the implementation of inspection reforms envisaged by the RA Law “On organizing and conducting inspections in the Republic of Armenia,” including the newly created inspection body, should b to be guided by the principle of inspector – economic entity cooperation: the inspector should not be seen as a controller, instead as promotional while implementing inspection checks. They should give counseling and suggest preventive measures to encourage businesses and help them bringing it into compliance with the requirements. To form a cooperation to develop and implement mechanisms to provide feedback,” the Prime Minister said.
According to Karen Karapetyan, an inspector in the exercise of their activities should not be seen assigning fines and penalties, economic entities must be given deadline to correct the deficiencies, if not correct, then we apply the relevant paragraphs of the law. Karen Karapetyan issued an instruction on export promotion, in order to stimulate exports from the Republic of Armenia to the Islamic Republic of Iran of Armenian products, in particular food and agricultural products, instructed the Minister of economic development and investment in cooperation with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Healthcare and Agriculture to consider and 5 days period submit a draft resolution of the Prime Minister in accordance with established procedure on the establishment of a working group for this purpose.
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“The Working Group shall work with the Iranian side in the direction of the establishment in Armenia of appropriate institutional structures to ensure that all necessary permits for the export of Armenian products on the Iranian market are complied with so that the exports meet the standards in the Islamic Republic of Iran and can enter the Iranian market through a simplified procedure. The Head of the Working Group shall submit a report on the work performed until December 25. I think that the mandate is clear: there is a large market in our neighborhood with great demand. We cover a small percentage of this demand. For this reason, if we are going to work effectively, we can take this market for a large share of our standards,” the Head of Government noted.
At the same time the Minister of Economic Development and Investment and the Chairman of the State Revenue Committee by the Government were told to discuss with the concerned authorities and entrepreneurs the possibility of establishing near the border with Iran a free economic zone, and until December 25 to submit a proposal.
The Minister-Chief of Government Staff David Haroutunyan was given an instruction concerning the granting of licenses electronically. “In order to reduce contact businesses and government agencies, taking into account the results of a study commission on granting licenses to legal entities electronically instruct for 3 weeks to submit a package of legislative changes, according to which the license issued to legal entities will be provided exclusively by electronic means. I propose to establish an exception only for certain licenses issued by the Ministry of Defence and the State Nuclear Safety Regulatory Committee, given that they contain elements of state secrets,” Karen Karapetyan said.
The next directive of the Head of Government concerned investment programs. “The Ministry of Economic Development and Investment shall form a single platform for presentation of investment programs. We invite all partners who have investment programs, submit them to the Ministry of Economic Development and Investment. Common formats to fill the investment programs, their address data and responsible professionals are now available The Ministry’s website. For this reason, I instruct the heads of central executive bodies and governors to submit in a month’s time to the Ministry of Economic Development and Investment, both public and private investment programs. This does not mean that if the investment program will be in a month, then you need not submit.”
The Prime Minister suggested that the Mayor of Yerevan, Chamber of Commerce of the Republic of Armenia and the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Armenia in a month’s time should submit to the Ministry of Economic Development and Investment existing investment programs.
Karen Karapetyan also instructed the Minister of Economic Development and Investment to summarize the investment programs so selected and present realistic programs to Armenia’s diplomatic missions in foreign countries, as well as potential investors, as well as submit quarterly reports on the activities carried out and their results.
The Prime Minister noted that this process will be continued. “This call applies to all businessmen of Armenian citizens. Not that a businessman cannot submit a proposal. The idea is that in the Program of the Government, we have envisaged creating a special fund for incentive, which should contribute to the business. I think that we have always been able to attract additional funding, only we need-based program that will give maximum effect, so that we could bring in these resources.”
In terms of stimulating foreign investment, the Premier deemed it necessary to translate the RA Law “On Foreign Investments” into foreign languages and instructed the Minister of Economic Development and Investments to be consistent in this matter. The last consideration of the Prime Minister came to the local producers, in particular, the recent decision of the State Commission for Protection of Economic Competition associated with the Yerevan brewery. “The Commission is an independent body established in accordance with the law and the Government has no leverage, but it is not impossible for us to express our opinion. Therefore I appeal to Mr. Shaboyan and the State Commission for Protection of Economic Competition to focus on the market of basic consumer goods, on which society is voicing far more concerns. It is much more priority than the sphere of the production of beer, where there is a large number of manufacturers and importers of beer, and there is a serious competition. In addition, I met with these businessmen, who argued that implicit profits are not overstated, and for this reason I would ask you to be more attentive to these issues,” Karen Karapetyan concluded.
The Government approved the draft of Law “On amendments to the RA Criminal Code.” Taking note of Armenia’s international obligations and the progressive study of international experience, the bill proposed to envisage in Criminal Code composition of the offense of illicit enrichment. The legislation lists the main manifestations of illicit enrichment, thus providing legal certainty principle. Thus, the manifestation of illicit enrichment by persons established in the RA law “On Public Service” procedure are required to submit a declaration of assets and income, are the increase of the property and (or) reduction commitments that are much higher than their legal income and not reasonably justified by them.
The Government approved the draft package of the law “On Amendments to the Law “On civil service.” The bill will streamline the scope of those operations in which payments cannot be administered in the form of cash, particularly the implementation of payments, as well as the list of those entities the operations of which are subject to control in the prescribed manner.
The government approved the procedure and conditions for the issuance of certificates of marital status by the Ministry of Justice and the diplomatic missions and consular offices. The corresponding decree provided for the terms specified in applications directly obtained from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and consular institutions of the Republic of Armenia to provide the required certificates are issued without any means of postal services by sending them through electronic communication directly to the consular institutions of the Republic of Armenia. The result will be reduced deadlines for issuing certificates of no marriage concluded persons in foreign countries, also taking into account the increase in the number of services, such as the provision of certificates in two languages, that make it possible to significantly reduce the flow of financial resources and the time to translate documents.
To regulate the relations regarding the appointment and payment of a lump sum for the birth of the child, as well as to improve the quality of services to beneficiaries, the Government adopted a relevant resolution. In particular, the application for a lump sum payment on the birth of a child can be submitted online, if the aid is granted in the amount set for the birth in the family of the first or second child.
