A regular Cabinet meeting was held today, chaired by Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan.
The Premier and the Cabinet members held a minute of silence in memory of late Minister of Emergency Situations Armen Yeritsyan.
Before proceeding to the agenda, the Prime Minister gave a number of instructions to the heads of all government agencies: “Specific issues raised by society for the Government’s or the Prime Minister’s attention are often forwarded to the relevant authorities, but sometimes government agencies reply with vague or impersonal statements without specifying any targeted or effective steps to deal with the matter, especially as it is question of new projects or increased budget spending in the spheres under the jurisdiction of the agencies concerned.
We will not accept any such statement as may be short of proper analysis, elaboration, without prior discussion with other interested institutions and containing general theoretical descriptions of the problem at hand. Any such written statements will be returned without taking them out of control. Solution needs practical measures,” Karen Karapetyan underscored and urged the Minister-Chief of Government Staff to monitor the quality of assignments in view of the above-stated considerations.
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The next directive had to do with the priorities and the provisions of the government’s annual action plan as proposed by ministries. “Taking note of the programs, I noticed that not all of them were properly formulated: the proposals are not always justified by clear-cut and measurable sequence of deadlines. As such, these programs will not be accepted. I am hereby instructing you to complete the work within the next couple of days. We will discuss the priorities and the details of the annual action plan during the meetings to be held with the ministers next week,” the Head of Government said.
With a view to attracting investments, facilitate the settlement of production-related issues in order to create jobs and significantly improve the quality of services, the Marz Governors and the ministers of Healthcare, Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources, Agriculture, Transport, Communications and Information Technologies, Territorial Administration and Development were instructed as follows: “I am giving you three weeks to discuss with the State Property Management Department and finalize the list of those State-run companies, which should be included in the program of State property privatization. Please note that the privatization of individual companies shall henceforth be based on clearly specified targets.”
The Head of State Property Management Department was told to summarize the proposals and develop a draft law on amendments to the privatization program and submit it to the Government Staff within a week’s time. In this context, Head of State Property Management Department Arman Sahakyan was asked to report back progress in the implementation of the Prime Minister’s assignment concerning the performance of State-owned companies.
In response, Arman Sahakyan informed that the financial monitoring has already been carried out: “The performance for the year 2015 is complete, though as stated in the relevant government decision, the financial indicators for 2016 will be finalized in May, 2017, which is set as the deadline for summarizing the annual performance. This process can clearly be launched, considering that we have the 2015 indicators. Based on them, we can proceed with the discussions,” the head of State Property Management Department said.
Karen Karapetyan’ next instruction referred to the educational system: “The State Inspectorate for Education has recently carried out surveys with educational institutions nationwide, which revealed numerous violations. The Inspectorate issued a number of proposals and recommendations in this connection. I instruct the Governors and suggest that the Mayor of Yerevan to enforce the recommendations aimed at eliminating the irregularities and shortcomings identified by the State Inspectorate for Education and report back progress within two weeks, addressing each recommendation separately,” the Prime Minister said.
The Minister of Education and Science was told to conduct discussions with the regional administrations and the Yerevan City Hall and sum up the findings of the audit performed by the State Education Inspectorate. “Based on the findings, you must submit recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of educational services.”
Prime Minister Karapetyan instructed the Minister of Education and Science and the Minister of Defense to analyze within two days the findings of the probe carried out at Little Mher Educational Compound SNCO by the joint committee of the two Ministries and submit recommendations within three days. In this connection, Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan said that the specified deadline is sufficient for them to deal with the matter.
“We have been working on in this direction for a while now. The idea is that the Little Mher high school be placed under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense and merged with the Monte Melkonian College. It is meant as a follow-up on our drive to drastically enhance the quality of military education,” Vigen Sargsyan said.
The Minister of Nature Protection was given ten days to submit proposals on the planned switchover to a unified system of environmental permits and licenses and the one-stop-shop principle. The Minister of Nature Protection was also told to conduct a relevant survey within a month’s time and submit information on those water users operating without a permit, as well as on ways of ruling out instances of illegal water use. The Premier highlighted the importance of his water use-related instruction in terms of environmental and other considerations.
Prime Minister Karapetyan asked Minister of Justice Arpine Hovhannisyan to brief him on the status of the assignment given at the November 3 Anticorruption Council meeting concerning the Council reshuffle. To remind, the Minister of Justice was instructed to organize meetings with all stakeholders and submit proposals on the reshuffle. Arpine Hovhannisyan informed that work is complete. “The proposal will be out in a week in line with your instruction.”
With reference to the Upper Lars-related issue, Karen Karapetyan told Minister of Transport, Communications and Information Technologies Vahan Martirosyan to keep the matter in the spotlight. “Mr. Martirosyan, the Upper Lars problems must be kept under control because we have a problem there.”
The Government approved the proposal to sign an agreement between the Government of the Republic of Armenia and the government of the Australian Union on encouragement and mutual protection of investments. The draft agreement sets out general principles for investment activities between Armenia and Australia. The draft includes articles on investment promotion and protection, compensation for losses, expropriation or alienation, compensation or the settlement of disputes between contracting parties and a number of other provisions.
The meeting next endorsed the 8th amendment to the assistance agreement between the Government of the Republic of Armenia and the Government of the United States “On improved efficiency of healthcare and welfare services.” The USAID has already communicated the draft amendment, which provides for additional financial allocation of USD 1,100,000.
The Government adopted a relevant decision to put the house (bungalow) of prominent national figure, philanthropist Mikayel Aramyants in Lori Marz of Armenia on the list of State-protected historical and give it the status of cultural monument.
The Executive passed a decision to ensure that Ararat Baccalaureate examinations are included in the system of university entrance exam. According to the reference note, as early as in 2014, the Ministry of Education and Science and AYB Education Foundation launched the National Plan for Education Excellence (NPEE) in line with a presidential directive. The project aims to create an internationally competitive educational program in Armenian (Ararat Bachelors AB), which in turn will be the basis for high schools’ institutional development.
In accordance with another decision, money will be allocated to the Ministry of Education and Science in order to comply with Armenia’s commitments assumed under the PRC Government-supported Chinese School Project.
Mindful of the need to carry out coordinated actions aimed at creating a favorable investment climate in Syunik Marz of Armenia, the Government adopted a decision on establishing the Syunik Marz Development and Investment Foundation and approving its charter.
The reference note says that the promotion of economic activity in the provinces is considered to be a priority for the Government and, therefore, the most appropriate way to achieve this is to set up an appropriate institution with the necessary professional and financial capacity. The Foundation will focus exclusively on the social and economic problems of Syunik Marz.
Commenting on the decision, the Prime Minister praised the initiative and urged those responsible to be possibility consistent in this matter considering that the successful experience of Syunik Marz could be implemented in other regions as well.