After a long break yesterday the RA Prime Minister decided to respond to the questions of the journalists without preliminary preparation. He promised to have such meetings once a month. We are presenting the Q&A with slight cuts.
– During the NA hearings on agricultural issues the NA chairman Hovik Abrahamyan stated that the government project 2008-2012 is not fully implemented. What is the reason for that?
– I am only familiar with the statements of Abrahamyan, by which he endorses the government projects and commends them for successful implementation. If you mean the agricultural development project then it’s much older and was several times revised. The 2008-2012 project was also revised in much broader discussions. The discussion of the new project took almost six months and is now called “Agriculture and village development project.” It also includes the projects of international organizations. I think we will for the first time have a project, which also includes funding support.
– Certain political forces insist that the reforms launched by the government in many cases are not competed or those don’t work out because the Prime Minister is weak. Do you agree with that opinion?
– If the prime minister is weak what is the point of spending so much money and resources to criticize him by media? I don’t think so. It shows not the weakness but who’s behind the criticism. And this doesn’t intimidate us at all and even makes us stronger especially when we know who these people are and what their goals are.
– The rumors about your resignation stubbornly don’t stop. Finally when are you going to resign? There is an opinion that NA chairman Hovik Abrahamyan will be substituting you.
– I just offered Abrahamyan this scenario and told him that 168-Zham newspaper has posted so beautiful photos of ours. He once again refused to accept this offer. And if being serious I should say that no Prime Minister has ever avoided that type of question. Let’s remember late Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan. During each spring, fall political process there appeared news on his resignation. One must treat this all quite normally, as the head of the executive body is always the focus of attention and criticism. For that reason you should also be calm about that especially because you have analytical skills. You all know the purposes of each political force. So I think everything moves in a normal way in our country.
– A new phase of devaluation of the AMD has started. Was that the result of the statement of Serzh Sargsyan? How can the Armenian economy develop in these conditions? What do you expect from this as a prime minister?
– Since 1993 in Armenia we have a floating currency rate. It means the market decides the price of the currency. Making predictions is an ungrateful job and in the case of the currency unacceptable effort. The RA president alluded the attention of the CB that in the market we shouldn’t have rapid fluctuation. The observed fluctuation is measurable and temperate for the market economy. I think the CB is able to deter our market from turbulence.
– What can you say about the inconsolable state of our economy?
– Since when have you noticed inconsolable state in our economy? Five years ago we were in a prosperous state and now inconsolable?
– We were speaking about the dual-digit growth back then.
– I remember the speeches of Arshak Sadoyan, according to which we are standing on the edge of the abyss. We are currently in the post-crisis stage. And you see that the best specialists of the word are trying to discuss this matter and find models for overcoming the crisis. They are trying to figure out when this stagnation and inflation will end. We are expecting serious challenges and I think we have the capacity to ride this ship successfully in the world economy. I want you to pass the signals to the people as well to make them understand that the government is able to efficiently manage these challenges and risks.
– About a month and a half ago the RA president during the meeting with you and the ministers stated that the reforms of the economy and agriculture should give results every two months. The mentioned deadline is approaching. Are there any results? Will the prices of the agricultural goods be acceptable for us? In the opposite scenario what will the government do?
– I think certain media outlets are trying to mar the words of the president. No such deadlines have been set for the government. The president of the country defined short-term, mid-term and long-term objectives. Moreover, in May we are anticipating positive shifts and we will all witness that. In the mid-term aspect we are anticipating positive changes in the end of the year. And we will be able to restrain the inflation. So we should speak before May, before August and December. I think that the objectives set before May will be fulfilled. The incentives that we have in industry, economy, agriculture evidence that there are positive results to be expected. So our duty is to maintain it till the end of the year.
– Armenian meteorology predicts frost for tonight. The most competent expert of the agriculture sector, the minister of agriculture Sergo Karapetyan as the best option suggested blessing the fields. Can you say that at least this initiative of your government failed?
– I appreciate your humor. Your interpretation that appears in the media is not true.
– Are the rumors in the media correct, by which you have problems with the head of the State Revenue Committee Gagik Khachatryan?
– I think that the media should discuss facts but not cases, about which we now speak about. And our struggle should be directed at annihilating these phenomena.
– Even your teammates are telling that the ANC rallies are quite crowded because the society is dissatisfied with the government. Does this mean that even your teammates within the RPA think that the government activity is not quite satisfactory?
– Of course, even in our team there are people, who criticize the government. There are also people within the opposition, who support us. I don’t see anything strange here.
– Do you agree with the opinion of the IMF representative Gilierko Tokasa, according to which the previous growth of the economy was merely a bubble?
– There was a serious problem in our economic growth. The problem was that the constructions sector was growing rapidly and dangerously. When one branch of economy registers excessive growth the rest of the branches of the economy start to very much depend on that sector. The growth of the construction in the GDP reached 30%. And secondly, the investments had a speculative character because if annually prices grow by 20-30% then indeed making investment is pretty dangerous. People were moving their funds from other sectors into construction because it was more profitable and making money was much easier. And sooner or later this balloon should have burst. This is characteristic to other economies as well. You probably remember the crisis of the stocks in the US, the Asian crisis. In Japan also such things happened. The same happened in Armenia.
– In the beginning of your speech you have mentioned that Armenia is in a post-crisis phase but when in 2008 the whole world was speaking about the economic crisis you had mentioned that it had passed Armenia. What was the result of the controversy of your prediction and the reality?
– We hadn’t predicted the crisis because if we had the crisis would not have had occurred. The crisis has such a peculiarity. All the specialists are saying that a crisis is a phenomenon, in the result of which all the legitimacies stop working. If we were able to predict then the crisis wouldn’t happen.
– You have lost a lot of weight. Is it a result of the crisis or Easter pass?
– I work out and go do sports.
– Don’t you know the property of each statesman?
– I should frankly say no.
– Can we say that now has come the time when you need the support of the media, which served a reason for you to finally meet us?
– Every government has the need of the media support. So does our government.
P.S. Sargsyan didn’t exclude that in the near future Armenia will receive a considerable fund from Eurazes anti-crisis foundation. In his words, those funds will be used to finance private initiatives and business projects.