Most probably our government has for a moment forgotten the daily issues – inflation, zero economic growth and migration and once again took the direction of the vision of bright future.
To a certain extent this is quite surprising because Nerses Yeritsyan, who is the most romantic person within the government, is no longer within the government. Instead his functions are being carried out by the minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan. Thus, after the fulfillment of the National Competition Council, Pan-Armenian Bank, Armenian World vision now the government has decided to establish a new structure – Armenian trade network. But they are not going to establish it themselves but with the help of the Armenian-Canadian business council. For this purpose yesterday took place the first meeting of the council in Yerevan headed by the prime minister of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan, which hosted over three dozen of Armenian businessmen visiting from 9 countries. And most importantly this event was organized by the ministry of Diaspora. During the opening of the meeting the minister mentioned that during the past 20 years the Diaspora Armenians have made major investments in Armenia but now it’s time to unite the potential of the world-spread Armenians. Unfortunately she didn’t mention how they decided that the time has come now or why this time was not there two or three or ten years ago. “I think this conference should serve a platform to establish a structure, which would further even more activate the Armenia-Diaspora linkage in the sector of economy,” said the minister. Yes, indeed, in all the other sectors besides economy, such as politics, culture, charity we already have relevant structures, which show necessary support. So the linkage is more than active. We would also like to speak about the scientific potential but let us recall the well-known, world famous astrologist, who the minister of Diaspora hosted and praised. Hranush Hakobyan also recalled the words of the president addressed to Diaspora Armenians. “We should destroy the stereotype that in Armenia the Diaspora can only do charity. I am sure our compatriots can also earn money here. By having profit in the country they can support the development of the country and will have personal profits.” “Here we need development plans because we have favorable conditions created in the country for investment. But before that we should ensure that Diaspora Armenians benefit from that.” But the most remarkable part of the minister was when she mentioned the initiative of establishing the Armenian Trade Network (ATN). Hranush Hakobyan didn’t find it an accident that the abbreviation is called that way. “ATN should help our compatriots to stay in Armenia, have jobs, cut migration, poverty. That way our people will have the opportunity to make money and take care of their families and develop Armenia,” she said. So now we have the bread, cheese as once mentioned Tigran Sargsyan. Soon the Armenian world will shine. It’s time to invent another program. And the content is not even that important as long as the abbreviation sounds like a “tomato” or something. After that everything will be perfect. Indeed prime minister Tigran Sargsyan also made a speech at that meeting. He presented to the Armenian businessmen the social-economic situation of Armenia, the omissions of the economy and issues. He also added that the economic situation in the country majorly depends on the global crisis. He then mentioned that the global crisis has revealed the weaknesses and strengths of the Armenian economic system. It is hard to say what conclusion the Diaspora Armenians have drawn. It is interesting to know whether the Armenian economy had problems before the global crisis or after. Or did the crisis merely make the problems more visible? The words of the prime minister could be understood in two ways. And indeed the prime minister didn’t forget to lecture on the lessons of economy, by mentioning that Armenia has learned a few lessons from the crisis. One of those is that there is the necessity for institutional reforms. Also, there is the need to fight against corruption, improvement of the tax and customs administration. Perhaps the businessmen would like to ask a question. Was corruption before the crisis considered a positive phenomenon in Armenia? Afterwards, Tigran Sargsyan among other problems mentioned the slump in the agriculture sector, which was mainly connected with climatic conditions, as a result of which the price of village products grew in Armenia. But the Diaspora Armenians didn’t have the luck to get acquainted to the talented steps of the Armenian government aimed at overcoming the agricultural situation. Among those steps we may mention praying the lands or the order to the agricultural minister not to address people with “dear…” But judging from the news from the conference the Diaspora Armenians didn’t even worry about these tiny matters. They think more about global things and view our government a great partner in terms of galactic reforms. Specifically, the head of the Armenian-Canadian council Vahram Prjanyan mentioned that the Armenian budget is 3 billion USD but only in Ontario the trade circulation of the Armenian businessmen is 4 billion USD. And their business turnout is 10 billion USD in all of Canada. He suggested to multiply 10 billion USD several down times in order to assess the capacity of the Armenian Diaspora. He also mentioned that this immense potential of the Diaspora should be united with the potential of Armenia and only after that make calculations. Prjanyan expressed his willingness to support the development and establishment of small and medium businesses in Armenia. Do you see? While we are trying to get some ridiculous several hundred million USD loans from here and there our compatriots are playing with billions of dollars. But the first thing that pops out in the head is the following – “so what?” Will they be able to convince the businessmen to at least make a 1% investment in Armenia with their ATN project? As a result of that Armenia will become the most progressive country in the region. Regardless of how pitiful would it be we have to confess that today it’s almost impossible. Moreover, today we not only are able to “bring home” the rich Armenians but we can’t even “keep them home.” By the way, one of the richest people of the world Kirk Kirkorian shut down Linsy Foundation in a very democratic way. He doesn’t even think about making investments. Gerard Gafeschian is not admired by Armenia either. And finally the domestic businessmen are thinking about moving their businesses abroad. And this is the biggest anti-commercial to bring the outside investors to Armenia. But again, this is not very important for Armenian government. The most important thing, as we mentioned, is the project “potato.” After that we can enjoy the summer with bread, cheese and potato. On the other hand, after the establishment of this structure, we think that the people’s saying “stick there where bread is” will also change. Taking into account the fact from Armenia even the domestic businessmen are leaving the mentioned saying will become very plausible.