The most important development in the economic life of Armenia in this month definitely was the Armenia-Diaspora congress. Generally, all the things that are organized with participation of Diaspora Armenians have economic reasons in the basement. This monotone line has become boring both for us and the Diaspora Armenians. Compared to the previous congresses, this year the authorities have determined a specific way how to ask money. They have published a brochure entitled as “Village poverty reduction”. The mentioned brochure writes that 50 villages out of the almost 900 villages are success. In other words, 50 Diaspora Armenians have agreed to provide financial support for villages. According to the program of our authorities, the Diaspora Armenians will be divided into three groups. The first group consists of those Diaspora Armenians that have agreed to provide financial support to villages to sponsor the development of villages. The second group consists of collaborating people or organizations, which may present specific development programs to be implemented in villages. The brochure writes as an example that some of them may build TV towers in villages (why to leave any of the villages out of the zone of propaganda of the national TV company of Armenia?). The third group consists of people that are called as donors, i.e. people that may make donations to support the implementation of programs in villages. In that case, they have brought an example of reconstructing school rooms or buying even tables for children.
It seems that the suggestion of supporting villages does not contain any dangers. Just like the certification system for buying apartments in the zone of the earthquake. As we know, it didn’t serve the prescribed purposes and in the future became a fact that supported migration. According to the information of real estate companies, this year Diaspora Armenians have started being interested in lands in the country as well. Those people that pay $200-300k to buy an apartment in the center of Yerevan may buy lands in the country too. In those areas the prices are not so high. A garden that has 3 hectare territory with apricot trees is sold for 4 million dram. Those who buy the mentioned land may get their money back within two-three years. The main obstacle to sell lands in village communities is the land code. It writes that only citizens of Armenia may buy lands that are used for agriculture purposes. It is clear that very soon the parties will do their promises and will adopt a law on dual citizenship. After the adoption of the mentioned law there will be a “flow” to villages. Villagers will sell their lands and having enough money to immigrate they will leave for other countries. Today the papers cover the speech of Vardan Oskanyan during the congress and write that they did not like it. He offered the rich people to take villages. It turns out that the authorities are concerned about the fact that the country is developing with disproportional influence to different territories. The “Poverty reduction in villages” brochure writes: “Half of the poor Armenians now live in village communities”. In fact, the authorities think that the two-digit growth may solve the problem of the half of the population only. The other part of the problem they give to Diaspora Armenians. “Let’s develop Armenia, village by village”, the authorities are petitioning. Probably they think that the responsibility for developing the country city by city is their work.
All the mentioned things are happening in parallel with the celebration of the 15th anniversary of the Armenian independence (or in the framework). Nevertheless, something that happened these days is very surprising. On September 19, there was an auction, where long-term governmental obligations were sold with a worth of a half billion dram. Our banking system bought long-term obligations from the state with a covering period of 11 years. In fact, there are people in Armenia that give Armenian dram to the government and are sure that they will get their money back in 11 years. This means that they believe that in 11 years, after at least two presidential and three parliamentary elections, Armenia will still exist together with its national currency. Instead of paying a due attention to this fact, the monetary and political authorities are looking for resources outside of Armenia. Do they think that it is easier to grab the money that comes from abroad? Like the money transfers.