Doctor of Economics, professor, National Assembly MP Tatul Manaseryan: “We can’t even call this year’s economic rise as a rehabilitative rise. We can talk about economic achievements only when we have transparent and based economic and privatized transactions and not transactions that are done rapidly with the help of bribes. I don’t see economic achievements like that and I can clearly see the consequences. After becoming a member of the World Trade Organization, Armenia has not done anything in order to raise levels of local product competition and benefit from membership through the means of competition. The only thing I can say about our economic marks is that today, our import is 2 times more than our export; basically, Armenia finances the production of other countries and helps the creation of workplaces abroad. When we will be able to help increase export through developing small and medium businesses, we can then talk about economic achievements. As a matter of fact, today when we say small and medium businesses, we mean traders and non-industrial establishments. What our economy needs is free competition and equal conditions for all businessmen and not a clan system. I believe that we can talk about economic rise in Armenia when we have a good economic field.”
Doctor of Economics, professor, head of the “International Economic Relations” department of the Yerevan State University (YSU) Toros Torosyan: “I can not doubt the fact that there have been some economic achievements in Armenia during the year 2005, however, I believe that our economy still has a huge obstacle-the lack of the remainder of the trade balance. Once again this year, import exceeded export. It is very important for us to export local products internationally. So, I think that we must first focus on this point in 2006. I have great outlooks for Armenian economy rise after developing competitive production.”
Economist Edward Aghajanov: “There was no economic achievement in Armenia in 2005. On the contrary, the remainder that the trade balance lacked was 20% higher than that of 2004. Whereas last year import exceeded export by 636 million dollars, this year it exceeded it by 750 million dollars. This year, the biggest loss was the distributive networks and in general, all the energy networks that we have sold to foreigners and by doing that, we have endangered the security of this field of economy. Besides that, 92% of our exports make up scraps of diamonds, metal and gold, as well as ready made food. Armenia follows the inertia method, meaning there is no major step taken towards economic development. I think that if we follow this method next year, then we will have more problems.”
President of the Union of Industrialists and Businessmen Arsen Ghazaryan: “Armenia did have economic achievements in 2005. There were new investments, 7-8 thousand workplaces have opened up, new businesses have also opened up and old ones have reopened-including the “Armenal” factory. Competition has improved, as well as the economic legislation. There has been a rise in construction. In 2006, we expect to see a 7-8% rise in the flow of foreign capital. In my opinion, something which will really help develop Armenian economy is interregional cooperation, especially starting economic ties with Turkey and Azerbaijan.”
Doctor of Economics, professor, head of the “Finances” department of YSU Vardan Bostanjyan: “We can not just overlook the economic rise in 2005, however, I don’t accept the 12-13% official mark. We can consider the rise this year as not bad and I think that we will continue this way in the year to come. The slow but stable rise in incomes of society can be looked at as an economic achievement. There was much construction in 2005 and agriculture flourished. A good thing is to see a rise in the specific weight of local producers in the total rise of investments in 2005. The 2006 state budget can also be looked at as an achievement. The budget has expenses that surpass 1 billion dollars. However, I do believe that shady enterprises continue to be present in the country. The sharp tendencies of the exchange rates made a negative impact on economy in the country during the year. I think that the money provided to Armenia next year by the “Thousand Year Battles” project will essentially help economic development in Armenia.”
Economist for the UN’s development project Aghasi Mkrtchyan: “The most important and positive economic achievement for Armenia is the 230 million dollars that was promised by the U.S. “Thousand Year Battles” project for next year. The main defect was the fact that we were not able to progress in government-especially in the fight against corruption, improving levels of government and effectiveness. If Armenia were to succeed in these fields, then we would have had the opportunity to get continuous help from the U.S. and reach greater heights.”