The expression “political will” is one of the most tortured expressions of the modern history of Armenia especially during the past 10 years.
The political will and mostly its absence is the main cause of the problems of Armenia. The government, opposition, international structures speak about that. Some openly and others indirectly highlight the importance of the political will. And the more they speak the more absent the political will is. This gives us grounds to assume that it is not demonstrated to a necessary extent. But it turns out it exists and that we just need to view it from a different angle. And so in the government building of Armenia the Convention of the Armenian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs was launched yesterday, which also hosted the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan. In his opening speech the President mentioned that “State and businessman should become reliable partners, otherwise any program aimed at supporting a private enterprise will be ineffective. We have spoken about all this for many times. We have also undertaken concrete actions which are already yielding results. However, I will use every appropriate occasion to remind this because forgetting this all – knowingly or unknowingly – is inadmissible. Our agenda is packed. We should unite and form consensus regarding the main national and public interests in order to live in an Armenia which is paving way up and forward – in the name of our future and our values. I have no doubt that in that case success will not be late. I have also no doubt that you share this confidence.” Prior to the launch of the convention during the briefing with journalists the chair of the union Arsen Ghazaryan spoke about the economic achievements of Armenia. He noted, “If we truly reduce the amount of shady economy and collect taxes from all representatives of the economic sphere, that money will be collected, even if it is collected with difficulty. That is, of course, if another economic crisis doesn’t start." He also informed that he had expressed this view during the meeting with RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan and members of the Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen of Armenia. "We have expressed our concern that the criterion is rather high for the government in the pre-electoral year and we have received the prime minister’s interpretation. Based on that, we understood that there is a higher demand for creating a field for competition." The discussion allows Ghazaryan to say that the government won’t circumvent oligarchs. "I am sure that the government pictured the oligarchs on the list of businessmen for creating equal competition and equal tax collection." Arsen Ghazaryan is rest assured that if the government relies on small and medium businesses for collecting taxes in 2013, it won’t be able to collect more taxes worth 101 billion drams than the previous year. "I am sure that they mean that and that taxes will be collected from representatives of small, medium and big businesses." For example, up until now the government keeps the tax package unavailable for the society and especially from the business sector. It’s clear that the government would say that the package is being amended and finalized. But the problem is that any state that respects the business would deliver the package and the changes to them in order to get their feedback. It’s clear that many of our businessmen know that they don’t need their feedback and have a better expertise than the businessmen themselves. Even if it was so they should have formally conducted a discussion like that. This would speak about their respect, willingness of a dialog and care for the business. Or perhaps they may have organized such a discussion but covertly. This is even worse. The whole media sector is trying to attain details about the package. If the journalists don’t succeed in that then the small-size entrepreneur couldn’t possibly do it for sure. And if the government has only gathered a few major businessmen and discussed the details of the package with them then it’s an disrespectful attitude to others. In a word, regardless of the options the state doesn’t much care about the opinion of its citizens. Now let’s observe the issue from the angle of business. Does the business respect the state? Perhaps not because when saying business we should consider not the shop, stall or stamp but the people behind that. And people have sense what’s going on and realize that their opinions are ignored. The evidence of such a behavior is the immense black market. People hide their businesses and incomes. The reason is not that it’s cheaper (in many cases being in the shade is more expensive) people don’t wish to give money to the tax body because they are not sure that the money is going to the budget. They think it goes to the pockets of certain individuals. And ultimately, let’s discuss the matter in the aspect of neither the state nor the business. Let’s take the golden average. And the average in this case is the union of businessmen with its convention. As A. Ghazaryan mentioned their convention is a platform for dialog and an opportunity for the state communicate with the business and vice versa. He slightly complained of the current situation and mentioned, “In general, doing a business is not an easy thing. In Armenia is double harder because we are active. We have issues in the management sector and creation of a favorable business environment. There is a clear political will that unites us all. This helps us develop in our markets and makes us stretch to foreign markets.” Thus, the political will exists anyway. In order to explore that we need to be in the right place – either in the middle or center. Of course, the precedent of Tigran Karapetich showed that being in the center didn’t bring much of an outcome. But you have to orient on time. And the Union of Businessmen (major businessmen) has always oriented right for the sake of prosperity and social justice.