The government agenda, after being adopted by the government on June 26 by the NA, has been publicized by the media and even presented to the public. Besides that, the agenda has even been installed on the government webpage. Anybody who wishes to read the agenda may be introduced to it and make recommendations or ask questions.
We tried to find out the opinion of current and former officials of Armenia about the government agenda, which reflects the economic life of Armenia. It turned out that at present no one feels like talking about it. A part of our interviewees don’t even know the contents of the agenda. But the officials, who are mainly pro-government, claim that no matter what the contents of the agenda/program are, it is fully realizable because otherwise it wouldn’t have been adopted by the NA. Let’s accept that as a pretty satisfactory answer.
The responses of our interviewees were so siimilar that we don’t even bother to mention names. Besides that, they asked not to mention their names and promised, by all means, to read the agenda during their vacations. Only NA deputy and former minister of environmental protection, Vardan Ayvazyan, has partly read the program, and said that besides being fully realiazable, it is a little pretentious, and is slightly exaggerated compared to what is actually possible. Oppositional politicians, who also offered to speak about it after their vacations, haven’t reached reading the program either. But as the agenda is online, we decided to get acquainted with it, to see what our government is offering us for the coming years.
At first sight, this agenda seems to take us out of the borders of Armenia – improvement of the quality of education, protection of human rights and freedoms, rule of law, favorable investment conditions, etc. It means that the government envisions in its agenda what Haylur talks about every evening on TV. And the government of Armenia must implement this program within 5 years. And so the program says that the double-digit economic growth of 2001-2006 will enable Armenia to provide 8-10% annual economic growth, which starting from 2009 will thrust Armenia out of the list of the countries with low income and move it to the list of countries with medium income. The authors of the program have placed importance on foreign investments, just like all the other governments in past. They have even given privileges at a limit of 50-100% for being exempt from the income tax. But as a result, instead of the increase of foreign investments in our country, our oligarchs have registered their businesses as foreign investment to be exempt from the income tax. At least 50 out of the 73 registered foreign businesses belong to local businessmen. And it turns out that our statesmen have adopted this law to serve their own purposes. And as a result, these 73 companies don’t pay about 100 billion AMD to the state budget as a tax. This is 1/5 of the state budget. And if this government keeps stimulating foreign investment in this way, then we will feel the poverty reduction of 11.2% and economic growth only through the National Statistics Service. And the 60% increase of pensions will have the importance of a fish on a hook.
The part regarding the fight against corruption is also very interesting. “The fight against corruption is going to be one of the main priorities of the government,” reads the program. There are many beautiful words like this in the program. At the first moment, one gets hopeful that the government is sincere about fighting corruption, but when you close your eyes and remember how your pocket becomes empty when you are dealing with hospitals, schools, universities, and the police, or when you are getting hired somewhere, then you instantly remember tales from your childhood or scenarios of Indian movies, which our government likes so much. You realize how far the current reality is from the offered programs.
The programs in the industry sector are more modest and don’t promise a lot. “The priority in this sector is metallurgy development. The sector has a great potential of development.” Armenia is considered a comparably rich mining country. And metallurgy and mining have a strictly directed character, that is, to sell the wealth of the country outside – copper, gold, molybdenum, etc. The exporters and sellers are again foreign investors, but representing Armenian officials. They grab the public wealth to fill their pockets. This is how Armenian mining production is. This is the reason the government does not give many promises concerning serious business projects and development in this field.
The government is modest in its actions in the field of transport and communication too. “It is expected that all the communities will have at least one good road, each connecting to the main important highways, by 2012”. This is one of the rare ideas in the project, which are defined clearly. Certainly, it is very important for the communities to have at least one good road connecting with the highways. This principle works in the field of air transportation too, which is that the country should have its national carrier company and develop it. In our country, this national carrier is Mikhail Baghdasarov’s “Armavia” company. Our national carrier has developed the aviation business in Armenia so much that the price for a ticket to Antalya from Yerevan costs three times more than a ticket from Paris to Antalya, that almost all flights are delayed by about one hour, and that the aircraft and passengers have to wait for hours in the airports of Paris or other cities until they change the wheel or repair the jet… However, the government program does not say anything about seeking new ways and routes of contact with the outside world. The program has failed to meet the imaginations of those who wrote it. Would they write about the fact that Russia has promised us to use the Caucasus-Poti ferry but does not let us do it? Would they write that the talks with Turkey on opening the border are not starting due to the fact that Russia does not want it?
Generally, there are many wonderful, fantastic and exotic provisions in the government’s program, which we will discuss in the future.