After “taking an exam” in front of the Prime Minister yesterday, the ministers of Culture and Youth Affairs, Justice, Trade and Economic Development and Territorial Management gave their annual reports to journalists.
Unsatisfactory for “musketeer” Hoveyan
It was interesting to see who was going to give a report on the activities of the Ministry of Culture and Youth Affairs, which was removed from the chief position. Deputy Minister Gagik Gyurjyan was the one that gave the report and according to him, he was ashamed from the rest of the ministers because the Prime Minister had considered his work as “unsatisfactory”.
We were expecting this,” said the deputy minister. He went on by stating that the reasons for this were the removal of Hovik Hoveyan and some mistakes made by the ministry. In any case, Gyurjyan was praised for the work done on preserving monuments.
In 2005, the ministry has worked on preserving the monuments, listing the newly found monuments and making a list of the monuments in the Marzes. The ministry has paid more attention towards the valuable monuments that have been left behind. Museums also cooperated with the ministry; during the year, the number of samples displayed in the museum and visitors have increased.
The ministry has given 325 certificates giving the right to export valuable, cultural items, while 4611 cultural items were exported without a certificate. The state supported the ministry by organizing 2 international movie festivals, producing 1 full-length movie, 7 short-films, 3 animated films and 10 documentaries. G. Gyurjyan believes that the state must emphasize on making films based on protecting the interests of society and the state. While touching upon cooperating with other countries, the deputy minister talked about the cultural ties between Iran and Armenia.
G. Gyurjyan just had to say something about the minister’s position.
“I don’t think that politics has to play any role here,” said the deputy minister. He added that the ministry is full of artists and he would like to see the new minister to have management skills. In response to one of the questions of the journalists as to whether or not he planned on becoming the next minister of culture and a member of the “Rule of Law” political party, G. Gyurjyan said: “I don’t want to become neither a minister, nor a member of “Rule of Law”.
We can see the rise if we really want to see it
Minister of Trade and Economic Development Karen Tchshmarityan has the answers to every question. That shows why the Prime Minister gave the highest grade to this ministry for the work completed. K. Tchshmarityan considers presenting the law draft on “State Support for Innovative Activities” at the National Assembly, as well as the creation of a national center for supporting small and medium businesses as the highlights of the year. According to the minister, the branches of these businesses are located in all the Marzes of Armenia. As a result, small and medium businesses form 40% of the GDP of Armenia.
As for the companies that have made new transactions in the field of industry, Tchshmarityan mentioned the “RusalArmenal” joint-stock company which will start working in the months of March-April. In the near future, the “Glass World Company” (the former “Crystal Glass Factory”) will also be bought and 40 million dollars have been invested for buying new, technologically advanced equipment. According to the minister, the economic rise will be 13% and industry will be 7%. The amount of money received from abroad is approximately 350-380 million dollars. Compared to investments made during the first nine months of 2004, in 2005, investments increased by 28.7%. Exports rose by 135.7%, making it 970.3 million dollars; as for imports, they rose by 134.7% and the amount is 1 billion 820 million dollars. The number of tourists visiting Armenia during the year amounted to 300 thousand. However, the people don’t see the rise in economy. K. Tchshmarityan can explain this too: “If we really want to, we can see the rise. Anyone can see that we have a stable economic rise throughout the past couple of years.”
As he touched upon the increase in the difference of exports and imports, there are more raw materials, chemical products, mechanical parts being imported. The mechanical parts are imported with the purpose of rearmament. According to the minister, there is an increase in the specific weight of exporting ready made products. Basically, K. Tchshmarityan laid the main issue being talked about by economists out on the table. In response to the question as to what Armenia got out of joining the World Trade Organization, the minister said:
“We can’t state any statistics about this process for the time being. However, I must say that 20-30% of our foreign economics is thanks to our membership.”
The minister did not forget to give the traditional advice to journalists:
“I suggest doing away with the mentality of asking what, when or who.”
He refers to the new investors and businessmen. One of the things that K. Tchshmarityan “hates” to do is mention names of investors and businessmen.
Independent System
Minister of Justice David Harutyunyan also got a “good” grade. In his words, the juridical system became more independent in Armenia throughout the year. The most significant achievement of 2005 was the installation of the data base search program for laws and the creation of a recording device for trials. As of today, court sessions in more than 60 courtrooms are recorded. The minister could not respond to the question as to when that system will be applied in all parts of Armenia. He said that that depends on how soon the project will be financially supported. According to D. Harutyunyan, the Ministry of Justice was planning on presenting a few drafts to the National Assembly in 2005. However, the ministry didn’t go ahead with the plan because they were waiting for the results of the constitutional amendments referendum.
“Those laws could really change; so we decided to change some things in the juridical system. We will present all the planned out packets in nearly 2 weeks,” said the minister.
He also touched upon the work completed by the notaries.
“There is no doubt that there are still changes to be made in this system, however, we must accept the fact that there some good changes. As a result of our efforts, we joined the International Latin Notary Union. We meet with specialists often and check up on the notary offices, the situation at hand, quality of service, etc. We are permanently under the pressure of the abovementioned union (I mean that in a positive way),” said D. Harutyunyan.
However, he did say that the ministry has a lot to do concerning preparation of notaries. Many Marzes of Armenia feel the need of notaries. The Ministry of Justice plans on adding some changes to the law so that the people working at the notaries that want to go on a business trip get the money needed to make the business trip. There were some complaints regarding the fact that some notaries don’t have a list of prices on the wall and notary workers refuse to provide the list of prices to citizens. D. Harutyunyan called on the people to appeal to the Ministry of Justice in times like that.
The “little ones” were graded
Since the Ministry of Territorial Management has just been formed, it did not present an annual report. Instead of that, the ministry’s subdivisions were the ones who gave some reports. According to Minister Hovik Abrahamyan, the Rescue Party Services (the former department for extreme situations) and the work completed by the Migration/Refugees department were given a satisfactory grade. The Water Resources state committee was graded as “good”.