Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan today met with the participants of the operative rally of the RA Armed Forces leadership in the administrative compound of RA Ministry of Defense.
Welcoming the attendees, the Prime Minister noted that the meeting provides a good opportunity to discuss the economic and social problems facing our country.
In his speech, the Head of Government stated in part, “I want to tell you where we are, what we are going to do, and how we see economic development in the coming years.
In 2017, we had a 7.5% economic growth. This is the highest figure in the region, CIS EAEU. We planned a 3.2% economic growth when we were forming a budget in 2016. Along with 7.5% economic growth, we have the following figures: industry growth – 12.6%, trade turnover growth – 14%, services growth – 14.4%, tourism growth – 18%. The most interesting and most promising figure for us is that we had the highest export figures since independence in 2017: exports rose to USD 2.2 billion: exports grew by 25.2%; imports increased by 27.8%, while external trade turnover was 26.9%.”
The Premier said that if estimated from the perspective of net consumption, comparable figures have been recorded in exports and imports. Karen Karapetyan introduced the macroeconomic indicators as of January 2018, noting that progressive figures have been recorded as compared to 2016. “We are convinced that in the next 4-5 years we will have a sustainable economic growth which will stand out in the region and will overrun the performance of CIS and EAEU-member States and European countries. Note that Armenia’s 7.5% economic growth was recorded when the average global growth rate was 3.1%.”
The Prime Minister noted that the Government has initiated reforms in all spheres: territorial administration, anticorruption policy, agriculture, information technology, tax, customs, digital agenda and others.
“We have an extremely interesting and promising opportunity to ensure flight growth in Armenia. The economic growth that we envisage for the next 4-5 years will allow us to make long-term fundamental reforms. The reforms are not popular in some cases, we often have too many opponents; while having small achievements, it would be much easier for us to implement the planned reforms. We also have a unique opportunity, namely being a small country with a population of 3 million, we have managed to build a platform where several incompatible things have become compatible,” the Head of Government said.
In this context, Karen Karapetyan presented the privileged trade regimes for Armenia in the frame of its ongoing cooperation with EAEU, EU and individual countries. According to him, the free economic zone near the border with Iran makes of Armenia an exciting venue for potential investors and offers a wide range of opportunities to implement investment projects and engage in business. The Government is actively working with different business partners to showcase those opportunities.
“The Armenia Development Program – 2030 is being worked out now, which features the targets set by the President of Armenia in his National Assembly address, and which has the Government’s 5-year development program as a basis. It should be noted that quite an ambitious bar has been set, but the team that works on this program is more than convinced that we will succeed,” the Prime Minister emphasized.
Answering the questions of meeting participants, Karen Karapetyan touched upon the ongoing reforms in agriculture, light industry, information technology, digitization, management and other spheres, noting that they are positive and provide a solid basis for continued reforms. The Head of Government spoke about his visits to the provinces and Marz consultations, qualifying them as effective and important.
“There are many outstanding problems, yet we are happy to see that our regional teams understand the challenges they face. The presented reports are highly promising. We have digitized and taken stock of all existing management entities, GDP per capita, own revenues, garbage disposal, healthcare services and education systems. Many opencast problems are solved at once in the process of digitization,” the Head of Government noted.
Summing up his speech, Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan pointed out, “I want to assure you that the Government clearly understands the way to change the socio-economic situation in our country. We clearly understand that we will have a good, logical, developing and fair country. I would like to thank you for your service and assure that we highly appreciate your efforts which are of paramount importance without which our country has no future. We will provide the necessary socioeconomic conditions on the home front so that you could rest assured that those behind you are taking their share of the burden.”
