Chaired by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, a consultation was held, during which the draft of Armenia’s demographic strategy was discussed.
As a supplement to the previous discussions, the Prime Minister noted that a lot of work has been done during this period and expressed hope that conclusions will be drawn as a result of today’s discussions. Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that any strategy, including demographic strategy, cannot exist in a vacuum, that is, it is part of the general context. The Prime Minister clarified that demography is, in fact, defined by the dictionary as the science about population, and deals with the concept of life and living. According to the Prime Minister, this is related to the political discussion and debate proposed recently, because when discussing the effectiveness of the implementation of the demographic strategy, there are many points on which the attitude is very specific and positive, but every time when reaching these points, there is no confidence in how realistically they have been implemented and what results they will bring.
According to Nikol Pashinyan, it is important what concept of life is put in the basis of the demography strategy and what concept of the Republic of Armenia is put in the basis of the demography strategy. “If our perception of the Republic of Armenia is that it is conceptually an outpost, relying on which we should strive for a greater or, as it is customary to say, historical Armenia, it is a concept of life. If the Republic of Armenia is a state whose task is to ensure and protect its sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and to create conditions on this basis to ensure the freedom, security, well-being and happiness of its own citizens, it is a completely different concept,” added Nikol Pashinyan.
According to the Prime Minister, when discussing the demographic strategy and the current demographic situation in Armenia, a number of obvious factors are not taken into account, in particular, how many people emigrated from the Republic of Armenia just so that their children do not end up in a trench. Nikol Pashinyan noted that no one has statistics on how many citizens of the Republic of Armenia were deprived of the opportunity to receive a proper education because of this combination. Meanwhile, according to the Prime Minister, these people had huge potential, they could achieve great success in various fields. Summarizing the speech, the Prime Minister emphasized that this does not mean that the strategy should be reviewed, but it should be viewed under this light.
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Next, the works performed as a result of the previous discussions were presented. review of the demographic forecasting model, taking into account the results of the census, analysis of the demographic characteristics of the forcibly displaced population from Nagorno-Karabakh and inclusion in the strategy, completion of the calculation of the financial assessment of the strategy.
Referring to the strategic goals of increasing births, decreasing deaths, reducing emigration and implementing active aging programs, it was noted that the revised forecasting model is a baseline scenario and an action plan for the demographic strategy, monitoring framework and financial model are built on the following two scenarios: an accelerated scenario and an inertial scenario.
Details were provided on the main effects of the demographic strategy. Accordingly, it will lead to a decrease in population aging, an increase in population rejuvenation, reduction in the income-consumption gap by involving the older generation in socio-economic activities, Armenia will significantly boost its human potential development index, thereby reducing the existing gap with leading countries, etc.
An exchange of ideas took place, observations on various points of the strategy were presented.
The Prime Minister instructed the officials to prepare a report summarizing the discussions, on the basis of which the draft strategy will be submitted to the Government for approval and further steps will be outlined.
INFORMATION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT OF THE OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
