This sum will be spent on agricultural system to develop its substructures. 145 million out of this sum will be spent on water supply systems. Besides that new water supply tubes will be constructed. The second part of the program is intended for reconstructing roads with a length of 945 kilometers (and as our Government officials say, “the roads of life”) worth 67,100,000 dollars. This covers 67% of Armenian roads. Two million out of this 145 million will be given to village communities as long term credits. As for the 20 million, it will be spent to strengthen the management of water supply systems, provide advisory support and monitoring. The implementation period is five years.
According to official information 39% of Armenian citizens are in poverty. But according to non-official information this mark is more than 50%. Poverty is mostly spread in villages, where the population is over one million. According to the Government this is the reason why they applied to the U.S. Government and informed about the situation here, and thus they agreed to help us to fight against poverty. It seems that if this money is invested in production, then the taxes received from this field are used to fight against poverty, it will not work. But the U.S. Government is not interested in developing the Armenian economy or production. They prefer spending their money on building water tubes (which will get out of order in several years) then supporting the development of economy. But this is another issue, because our authorities are experienced in stealing money so it wouldn’t seriously help our production develop. This money is also a gift for us and we shouldn’t discuss it much, I mean if it is spent in a duly manner in agriculture, we will see progress and differences soon. According to the RA minister of finance and economy, Vardan Khachatryan, during these five years poverty will be reduced by 6% in Armenia, and the income of farmers will increase by 34%. If this money is spent in a duly manner we will be able to progress in five years.
It is also worth mentioning that 80% of agricultural products are breed in land territories which are irrigated. It is clear that if farmers get more water they will be able to produce more products. The agricultural land territory of Armenia that can be irrigated covers 270,000 hectare, but only 170,000 hectare out of this territory is currently irrigated. We should do our best to provide more water to these territories. Moreover, it is not so difficult because Armenia has water resources. According to specialists Armenia has 7 billion cubic meters of external water stream, but now we use only 1,2 billion cubic meters. The rest of the water that is not used here goes out of our territories. In these conditions if we use these resources in a duly manner it will be very good, even more when according to the statistical service the agricultural field plays a key role in our economy development. If the other 100,000 hectare is irrigated too, we will have rapid growth. Besides that if in parallel with this growth we also reconstruct the mentioned roads, we will really see progress.
235,5 million dollars out of this sum will be spent by the World Bank program implementation offices, which will be controlled by a newly established non-profit organization called “Millennium challenges”. Now there is competition for the position of the chairman. 48 people have already applied for this position. We will be able to know who the winner is only in several days. As for the staff, it will be hired till the end of April. After that they have to clarify their responsibilities and agreement terms. Mr. Khachatryan hopes that all this will be done till August and they will be able to start their program in September. The program may spend 4-6 million dollars till the end of this year.
Regarding this program recently the regional head of the “Millennium challenges” corporation, Alex Rasin said: “Armenia has had serious shortcomings in fair management, and everyone must understand that the implementation of this program depends on how Armenia will comply with these standards in the future and during the whole program implementation period. If Armenia doesn’t meet these standards of fair management, the program may be ceased”.
Does this mean that the U.S. wants to develop democracy in Armenia? It is worth mentioning that the head of the corporation, John Danilovich, recently expressed his concerns regarding the recent referendum in Armenia. The corporation has given a list consisting of 16 points to all the countries participating in this program, and in case of not fulfilling even two of these points they may stop implementation. Mr. Khachatryan assures that everything is O.K. in our country. The only problem with these points is the incidents of April, 2005. Besides the U.S., our authorities also want to develop our economy and democracy in the country and they are doing their best. In five years both our state will be democratic and farmers will be satisfied.