A Cabinet meeting was held today, chaired by Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan. Prior to the discussion of the agenda issues, the Prime Minister gave a number of assignments.
The Prime Minister instructed the Labor and Social Affairs and Healthcare Ministers to jointly develop and submit to the Government Staff a proposal for qualitative changes in the field of medical and social expertise, with a clear reference to expertise procedures and the monitoring system. The Premier highlighted the need for reconsidering the requirements set before medical experts, clarifying the terms of reference in this area, separating the functions of medical and vital activity expertise, as well as digitizing the process and shifting to e-healthcare.
Karen Karapetyan gave two months to the heads of central executive agencies and the Executive Director of the Digital Armenia Foundation to develop specific actions aimed at improving Armenia’s digitization index in international ratings. Those concerned will be allowed a month’s time to define the range of priority public services subject to digitization and submit recommendations to the Government Staff.
The Minister of Transport, Communication and Information Technologies was tasked to take over the function of monitoring the process of improving Armenia’s ICT performance in international ratings and provide professional assistance to the authorities concerned.
The Prime Minister gave a month’s time to the Head of the National Statistical Service to develop in cooperation with the Digital Armenia Foundation a statistical database for the use and development of digital tools, as well as to draft and submit to the Government Staff proposals for initiating and implementing the e-Statistics pilot program.
“In this regard, we are illogically backward because we do not update and provide the necessary information regularly,” the Prime Minister said.
The Head of Government said he had instructed Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of International Economic Integration and Reforms Vache Gabrielyan to sum up the ratings and appoint a responsible person: “So that we could understand who has failed in his work.”
The Premier’s third instruction was about environmental monitoring. The Minister of Nature Protection shall provide an analysis of the environmental problems and suggest solutions within a 1-month period. The Minister was told to submit recommendations on the implementation toolkit to the Government Staff.
The Minister of Territorial Administration and Development was instructed to undertake specific measures in order to minimize the impact of community-faced environmental problems and improve the environmental situation in the country.
The Government approved the decision on donating 97.3709 hectares of community-owned land to Armenia’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Fund in compliance with the State-community-private sector partnership in the administrative area of Greater Masrik community of Gegharkunik Marz. As a result, the terms of the tender to be announced for construction of the Masrik 1 46 to 55 MW solar photovoltaic station in the administrative district of the community will be clarified, the status of the land will be determined for tender participants, and the cost of property rights will be easily predictable.
The Government made a decision that will enable Armenia to participate in the Folklife festival as a special guest. Armenia will be represented under the “Armenia: building home” idea. The visitors will be introduced to the values of Armenian cuisine and handmade artistic heritage. Accordingly, Armenia has the opportunity to use this platform not only for the promotion of tourism and cultural heritage, but also for advertising Armenian products to a larger audience.
The Government defined the spheres and timing of animal slaughter in Armenia. New slaughterhouses will be built to improve the slaughtering process. The meeting adopted a decision to include the aerodrome of Arzni Airport in the list of those aerodromes serving as a joint base of civil and military aircraft.