Having been in the highest echelon of government for 11 years, the RA President’s office staff as first aide to the President, later as chief of staff, Armen Gevorgyan has never been engaged in public activity. Now as he is appointed vice prime minister and minister of territorial management he has decided to work openly and transparently.
In his yesterday’s press conference he presented the main priorities and expected outcome of his ministry as defined by the government program 2008-2012. According to Gevorgyan the basis of these directions is the campaign plan and agenda of the president. In the words of Gevorgyan at present the territorial imbalance is a great obstacle for the economic and social development of the country. He said the idea is to give also a boost to mitigating disproportional economic development of Armenian regions. He said a government session will be held every quarter in the provinces in 2009-2012. Vice Prime Minister Armen Gevorgyan, who is also territorial minister, said today the first is scheduled for June 12 in Gyumri, the capital of northwestern province of Shirak, the second will take place in Vayots Dzor in September and the third in December in Aragatsotn province. According to Gevorgyan, these sessions will be convened outside Yerevan so that government members have an opportunity to learn about each province’s problems on the ground, to adopt strategic programs and concepts for their resolution. He said the idea is to give also a boost to mitigating disproportional economic development of Armenian regions. He said a government session will be held every quarter in the provinces in 2009-2012. “These sessions are not just formal events. We are going to analyze the complaint letters of citizens from regions. The members of government must be interested what kind of grievances the residents of Shirak have. That way they will be able to process them,” said Gevorgyan and added that through those sessions they are also contemplating the strategic planning of the development of these regions. “All the decisions, which will be made during those regional sessions, will become grounds for all the state bodies to be oriented which are going to be the priorities of, for instance, Shirak marz,” he said and assured that during these sessions the government will try to conduct a public survey and figure out which sectors can be of most interests for investment. According to Gevorgyan during these sessions the government will advert to conceptual issues as well as inventory. “If we leave for Shirak marz we will address not only the issues of that marz but also discuss the budget allocation, community expansion, etc. This will also help us to verify the list of people, who are willing to donate in that direction,” he emphasized. As of the poverty reduction in rural communities Gevorgyan said, “The MCC Compact of the US government will greatly support that through its financial support.” In the words of Gevorgyan it is planned that this program will provide tangible results for 750.000 people of the marz or 75% of the population by reducing the poverty level of the people. To the question whether you share the opinion of Robert Kocharyan that nothing terrible will happen if the MCC decides not to give this money to Armenia and that Armenia will find this money on its own Gevorgyan said, “I would like to speak about such issues when we actually face those because the MCC keeps efficiently funding the projects. I don’t see any problems at this stage. When such issues come up both the government and the leadership of Armenia will express their opinion.” According to the vice premier by the fall they will present new proposals regarding community enlargement. “In fall we will hopefully have the law on Yerevan adopted and concrete steps must be taken in that direction,” he said. According to Gevorgyan the government is not going to immediately implement the community enlargement program. “We should first try to understand how it is done and how to make the process efficient. The impression is that the society is quite skeptical about this process as they think that all we are going to do is unite several small communities into one. No, it’s not going to be so. The issue is more complicated and requires clear mechanisms. By saying enlargement it doesn’t mean that we are going to close that village and move the residents to some other community. No it means that we are going to solve optimization issues in those communities both administrative and financial. If we have a community, which has only 60 residents and 1 community head, an office, etc we must optimize those and curtail the extra expenses by uniting it with the larger one,” he noted. According to Gevorgyan in his ministry an internal audit system will be input, which will enable to thoroughly describe the activity of each state employee, the functions of the local self government body, criteria, etc. And if this system works efficiently then according to Gevorgyan it will expand to the governor’s offices. By responding to one of the replicas of the journalists, according to which the fact that Serzh Sargsyan is restricting the activities of the customs and tax service officials means that Kocharyan’s administration wasn’t working productive Gevorgyan said, “I have never commented on the words of presidents but one thing is for sure. Robert Kocharyan has also always been speaking about these issues.” Taking into account the good relations of Gevorgyan with the former president Kocharyan we asked Gevorgyan whether he is aware what Kocharyan thinks of the current government, which is drastically reforming the structures, which he has been in charge of for a long time. As a response Gevorgyan said, “I haven’t discussed such issues with Kocharyan.” To the question of one of the journalists on where it was more pleasant to work – at the president’s office or the government Gevorgyan answered, “It is a pleasure to work anywhere where you enjoy. I have enjoyed my job both back then and now because there has been no mandatory work for me and no one pressured on me.”