Prime Minsiter Tigran Sargsyan has decided to do a favor for the ministers. During the past session of the government he told the government members not to go for vacation, especially not to spend their holiday in abroad. He petitioned the government members to stay and work. In order to do a favor he decided to take them to the country and organized the next governmental session in Syunik region.
Maybe they want to combine the pleasure with work. This excursion and session in another region is unprecedented and the prime minister says it is a big event in Syunik region. This is important for the people of the region not for the fact that they will see ministers (from this point of view the past session was a bigger event for Yerevan people) but due to the fact that the government will discuss issues concerning the region and specific problems the region has.
Of course they could get information on the issues and problems of Syunik region in Yerevan as well and not to spend money to take the government and all body guards to another region when the country is still in crisis. It is a small detail but in a CIS country a minister told his staff to come to work by bicycle and use both sides of the paper when writing in order to save the government’s money. However our government has a number of reasons to afford this retreat. The government visited Syunik region to hand out the borrowings worth of 44 million dollar to Zangezur Mining, Armenia Molybdenum Production and Copper-Molybdenum factory of Syunik region and proudly announce about it. It is more impressive because if people see ministers walking in factories, they will think that the government is really working. Other issues have been solved too during this visit. Specifically, the government’s announcement writes that the government has decided to make the surrounding communities and areas of Tatev monastery complex a touristic area and attract tourists to this region. They said that Tatev is going to be a touristic center and that’s all, they did this with Jermuk too; they announced and now they expect that tourists will visit the region immediately. Even they don’t care that the road to the monastery complex is in very bad conditions.
It is worth mentioning that while being in Syunik the government did not forget about the construction companies of Yerevan and issued budget guarantees to Levon Amirkhanyan, MG-Housing and Hermek companies to take bank loans. In Syunik region the government also approved the economic recovery project to provide financial resources from the Russian loan to fight the crisis. The government’s statement writes that within the framework of a project amounting 90 billion dram the money will be distributed as budget loans in the following manner: provision of loans to the financial and banking system – 60,5 billion dram, support to small and medium businesses 6,4 billion, provision of loans to companies providing the operation of major infrastructures and establishing systems – 23,1 billion dram. It is not known yet what the interest rate will be and which sectors of the economy will get this money specifically. The prime minister says this project is unprecedented and is targeted at resisting the economic crisis. The government will give 48 billion dram to the earthquake zone during this year and 2010.
The government also discussed the issue of the loan provided by the International Monetary Fund. The most part of the IMF loan will be directed to covering budget expenses. It seems that the government’s resources are not enough to pay salaries and pensions because the government made a decision to strengthen the control over cash machines. Several days ago the prime minister instructed the ministers not to go on holiday and during the next three days think about solutions how to help the committee on state income collection. As for the loan provided by the IMF, according to the IMF country representative in Armenia, Ninke Omes. 250 million dollar was allocated in March, and 158 million dollar will be allocated till the end of the week.
Time will show whether such allocation and policy is good for the current phase. However, there is a risk that such allocation for foreign loans on mining and construction only may be too dangerous and this money may be embezzled because this may have short-term effect and some time later the money may finish and we will not have anything other than mere buildings. On the other hand, if it happens the international institutions and the government will invent new justifications to blow minds. The IMF country representative says, “The Armenian government is success in policies to resist the crisis.” In other words, not the policies are success but the efforts to follow such policy. As for these efforts, they are mainly targeted at finding sources of financial support, and even the donors are not sure whether this money will be spent effectively or no. Several days ago the IMF country representative told journalists that she thought the economic fall would amount to 9,5%. Journalists asked why 9,5 per cent but not 10, in answer to which she discovered her talent and humor and said that our people, who are used to double digits, would be very sad to hear about a double digit economic fall. Mrs Omes does not know that double digit growth or recession may encourage or discourage only people like them because ordinary people eventually don’t give a “damn” about their digits and predictions; they are living the real life and clearly see what is really happening.