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.
The Government approved Armenia’s hydropower engineering development, which is supposed to streamline the government’s vision for the development of the hydropower system. In particular, the concept addresses small hydropower plants’ compliance with the applicable technical standards, the vision for construction of Meghri, Lori Berd and Shnogh HPPs and the determination of the necessity to install a hydro-cumulating station.
The concept will help attract new investments, since the list is intended to adopt measures to ensure the implementation of the concept of development of Armenia’s hydropower engineering system to lay down specific measures to make it more favorable for investors, which in turn will increase the country’s energy independence and security.
Commenting on the decision, Karen Karapetyan stressed the need to start the construction of Meghri, Lori Berd and Shnogh hydropower plants of 300 MW capacity as soon as possible and work with prospective investors in terms of ensuring energy security.
The Government decided to approve an investment program for construction of solar power plants in a bid to attract investments for construction of solar plants with solar batteries.
Solar batteries for solar plants construction the Spanish Aries Engineering consulting company has completed and submitted feasibility studies for two selected sites; similar studies are underway for four other locations. The program is meant to promote the Government’s policy aimed at developing the solar energy sector, achieve economic diversification, strengthen Armenia’s economic and energy independence, enhance its economic and energy security, improve the reliability of the energy system, install new facilities for the development of energy efficiency and renewable energy, as well as to minimize the anthropogenic impact on the environment and human health.
Minister of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources Ashot Manukyan said in order to enhance the efficiency of the tenders to be invited for the aforementioned stations, the Ministry is going to hold a forum of potential investors in late January, 2017, which will discuss the possibilities and probabilities of attracting investments.
Stressing the importance of the proposed projects, the Head of Government said that they may call for about USD 400-500 million in investment. The Prime Minister also said that the annual reports of ministries and public agencies will be summed up in early January. The Government will simultaneously review the activities for 2017, specifying the level of investment for each government agency. “For this reason, I remind once again that we all need to get ready for a substantial discussion,” the Prime Minister said.
In accordance with a decision adopted in 2015, the meeting approved the revised composition of the Anticorruption Council. Note that the Government had amended the aforementioned decision in order to attract a larger number of civil society representatives, including representatives of organizations representing the private sector. The amendment tends to ease the criteria applicable to NGO representatives.
To improve the legal framework applicable to the activities of free economic zones, the Government amended a previously adopted decision. The relevant decision takes note of the concerns voiced by the business circles, the recommendations received from the private sector, which call for shorter deadlines for the evaluation of business projects.
The meeting next approved the following decisions: “On invalidating Article 1 of the Law AO-49-N of May 17, of 2016 on amendments to the RA Criminal Code,” “On amending the RA Criminal Code” and “On amending the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia.” The bills are meant to increase the efficiency of the institute of parole sentence.
The Government approved a set of amendments to the RA law “On banks and banking activities” and other related laws. The bills seek to harmonize the banking insurance regulations and the supervisory framework with the international standards.
Prime Minister Karapetyan asked Central Bank Chairman Arthur Javadyan whether they were going to reduce the refinancing rate on a regular basis. In response, the CB Chairman noted that it would go down, if necessary. To remind, the CBA Board meeting of December 27, 2016 decided to lower the refinancing rate by 0.25 percentage point to 6.25 percent.
As the yearend Cabinet sitting was nearing completion, Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan congratulated the attendees on the New Year and Christmas holidays. “Have a good rest, be back with better energy, since we are in for a much more severe regime in 2017.”
