A regular Cabinet meeting was held today, chaired by Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan.
Before proceeding to the agenda, the Prime Minister made a statement. “There are reports in the press that our ministers and heads of regional administrations are using administrative resources in the electoral campaign. As we enter the election campaign, I would like to strongly caution that the use of administrative resources for propaganda purposes is a “lip service,” no matter the interests of which political party they represent. Pay special attention to this phenomenon.”
On the instructions of the Prime Minister of Armenia, the Head of State Property Management Department by the Government reported back the findings of an analytical survey based on data for 2013, 2014 and 2015 and the first half of 2016 year concerning the financial status of companies with State equity participation.
“We have singled out those entities that have stated losses for 1, 2, 3, and 4 years in a row, as well as the ones that did not carry out any activities and, therefore, were not able to state profit. At the same time, we have compiled a list of companies operating with small profit margins based on the ratio,” Karen Karapetyan said. The Premier gave the agencies concerned 20 days to submit an opinion on these companies’ programs and managers and state their position as to the expediency of selected companies’ continued operations.
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Based on the above, the Prime Minister instructed the Chairman of SRC in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economic Development and Investment to identify within a month’s time the obstacles to the provision of the status of authorized economic operator to legal entities and abolish the existing barriers, including of legislative character. Karen Karapetyan told them to report back the number of authorized economic operators within 2 months. In addition, the Prime Minister instructed to inform the public within a period of two months.
The Premier’s next instruction seeks to activate the economic component in the activities of the diplomatic corps of the Republic of Armenia. “We have discussed with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and agreed upon ways of activating the economic component in the activities of the diplomatic corps”, Karen Karapetyan said.
To this end, the ministers of Foreign Affairs, Economic Development and Investment were given a month’s time to form a joint working group and submit a proposal as to the targets and indicators to be used by ambassadors in ensuring the economic component.
To ensure a more effective involvement of Diaspora’s potential in the Motherland, Karen Karapetyan said it necessary to intensify the activities of ministries and government departments.
The Head of Government instructed Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan to join the heads of other departments in order to develop within a month’s time a State program aimed at deepening cooperation with various Diaspora-based professionals, managers and their organizations.
At the same time, the Premier gave the Minister of Diaspora and the Minister of Education and Science two months to develop a comprehensive program of cooperation with Diaspora educational institutions to ensure training, youth language learning level, training of teachers for Diaspora educational institutions and training organization, Diaspora Armenian schools for new, including electronic textbooks, curriculum development, as well as measures aimed at developing and coordinating bilateral cooperation between universities and research institutions for scientists and their organizations in the Diaspora and Armenia.
Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan instructed Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan and Minister of Economic Development and Investment Suren Karayan to keep in close touch with the Diaspora structures and forward within a week’s time to Diaspora businessmen information about investment programs in Armenia.
The Ministers of Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs and the Minister of Diaspora were told to develop within a 2-month period cultural, youth and sports programs in the Diaspora to preserve, disseminate and promote Armenia’s cultural assets worldwide. The Executive amended a previous decision proceeding from the need to improve the centralized procurement system for State needs, ensure the introduction of a system of online monitoring of procurement contracts.
The decision envisages introduction of a centralized procurement system, under which goods and services will be purchased with identical technical specifications included in the list approved by the Government. At the same time it is planned to purchase up to AMD 70 million to supply goods Eurasian Economic Union to apply the 15% price preference. Executive decision making Roosevelt Torosyan received a gunshot wound to his military duties to carry out the treatment of the Russian Federation Government reserve fund of AMD 1,318 thousand drams will be allocated to the Ministry of Defense.
The Government next approved draft amendments to the Civil Code of the Republic of Armenia, which envisage elimination of the restriction of 5 years for asset management contracts. According to the Prime Minister, it is crucial to rule out those provisions concerning the trust management of public assets that may imply excessive limitations for businesses.
Karen Karapetyan noted that once adopted the bill will help solve many important problems. “If we limit to five years the term of asset management, we cannot attract strategic managers and investors. We have talked about it in communities and concurred in that the rules of game should be maximally open for the private sector to come and compete with our managers. Should they prove to be better managers in competition, we will have to hand over the business.”
The Government approved a set of amendments to RA Criminal Code, RA Penal Code and RA Criminal Procedure Code. In particular, based on the principle of legal certainty, the bills provide for a clear distinction between the concepts of “impossibility” and “failure” to settle the fines and penalties.
The meeting adopted a decision to streamline the privatization of those entities with less than fifty percent of State-owned shares.
In a bid to highlight the role of entrepreneurship in Armenia’s economic development, the Government passed a decision to mark March 3 as Entrepreneur Day. The reference note says 175 years of the birth of great Armenian businessman and benefactor Alexander Mantashyants are turning on March 3, 2017.
The meeting made a decision, according to which those India citizens who have residence permits in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman will be able to obtain RA entry visas at border checkpoints.
In conclusion, noting that the public agency performance reports will be summarized by late February, Prime Minister Karapetyan once again urged all agencies to pay special attention to the instructions given on the effective use of Diaspora’s potential. “We have huge untapped potential in this field.”