Yesterday the NA appeared in an almost emergency situation because the government program 2012-2017 was being discussed.
The discussion was quite tense due to the strict criticism of the ANC, ARF, Heritage and PAP MPs. Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan and his cabinet members, especially the ones in charge of the financial block, would obediently listen to this criticism. It is hard to write about the whole criticism but we can quote a few statements addressed to the Premier, government and the government program, which in general described the contents of this document. Let’s remember that through this program the government promises to provide 7% economic growth for this year and for the next years – 5-7% growth. Thus, among the quotes were, “this program doesn’t express the mental capacity of Armenia and cannot provide 5-7% economic growth, outgoing government program, a program to survive winter, a collection of toasts, only good wishes, vague, uncertain program, extremely uncourageous, etc.” These were only a tiny bit of the critical statements addressed to the government program. Yesterday the members of government received huge portions of criticism. Of course, during the Q&A the Premier tried to refer to many of those and try to respond but those were very weak in light of criticism. For instance, an ANC MP, former Premier Hrant Bagratyan stated that the foreign debt of our country exceeded 6,5 billion USD (including the debt of the private sector), which makes 65% of our GDP. With this index Armenia occupies the 13th place from the bottom of the list of world countries. And with the index of foreign debt it is positioned on the 7th from the bottom. “Why can’t you understand that during summer-fall of 2013 the Greek default might be happening in Armenia as well?” asks Bagratyan and adds, “the government once again anticipates to open 100,000 workplaces. I think our government needs to leave the term workplace alone and abstain from number 100,000. First, why are you opening 100,000 workplaces if we officially have 33,9 thousand unemployed? Second, in 2008 Serzh Sargsyan promised 100,000 workplaces, yet in 2008-2011 the number of unemployed increased by 1100. It means during the four years the objective was realized by 1,1%.” Former foreign affairs minister, a PAP MP Vardan Oskanyan first addressed a questioned to the Premier whether the economic slump would be more in 2009 if the government conducted a wrong policy. He reminded the statements of the government that as a result of their undertakings 14% slump was recorded. Oskanyan reminded the Premier that he had stated that the slump was registered due to the reduction of construction rates. It means that after 2008 this sector has been of no interest to the investors. This caused the plummet. Tigran Sargsyan repeated that one more time and said that the 14% slump of 2009 was mostly due to the reduction of construction rates by 10,5%. He also said that Armenia would avoid this plummet if the Armenian economy wasn’t built on construction to this extent. In Armenia, the ratio of taxes doesn’t reach 17% in the case when in the neighboring Georgia this index is 25%. And increasing this ratio by annual 0,3 and 0,4% is a really tough job. Let’s also mention that the increase if this index doesn’t have much to do with the economic growth. The government merely has to bring the black market to competitive free market and apply proper tax policies. “I think by setting such low indexes you are merely ensuring yourselves. We should compete with Georgia and other neighboring states,” stated Oskanyan. During his speech he stated, “Mr. Prime Minister, I asked you a question whether it would be possible to avoid default and you said yes if there had been no construction plummet. You know I can argue about your numbers but let me speak in those frames. The reason of recession was the global crisis. Plus it was the structure of our economy, construction and third it was because of your political course. I think the main impact of recession was due to your policies. In this program you are speaking about risks but you are not talking about risk management and its impact. We should have undertaken reforms as soon as possible in order to create resources and diversify what we have. We are speaking about the north-south highway but we should have constructed half of it by now. You are not even mentioning any dates. I think this program cannot provide 7% growth regardless of what will happen in Europe… We need economic growth today, Mr. Prime Minister.” “In this country, who is in charge of the management and who’s countable to people? Is it the government or some other external forces? I think our government serves as a curtain for certain unclear forces – some regional governors, notorious business clans or some groups, the representatives of which are today present here. We should openly speak about this. Let’s not demand things from the government that it cannot fulfill. If we draw this curtain we will see what’s actually happening here and we can do something about it. But we always get to deal with documents which surprisingly are never realized. Who are our expectations from? The only way out of this situation is sincerity. I don’t hear anything sincere in this session hall,” stated a member of the ARF faction Vahan Hovhannisyan. And a member of the Heritage faction, member of the Free Democrats Party Alexander Arzumanyan named the discussed program a temporary government document, something to get by in winter. “This is a declaration of good wishes and intentions. Let’s pick any section of it and see what words are used – we should become, should be done, will be expanded, increased, free of charge, improved, reformed, doubled, tripled, renovate, continue, provide, apply, strengthen, maintain, retain, etc. And so this goes on and reaches to the words “encourage, develop, stimulate.” And this text is really obscure,” stated Arzumanyan. Yesterday many MPs asked questions to the Prime Minister. Of course, there were also the ones that complimented the government program. But the number of the criticizers of the government and the document was so big that the session could even last today if not stopped. Let’s also add that the ARF, ANC, Heritage and PAP factions stated that they were going to vote against the program. This means that the program is to be adopted by the 75 votes of the RPA and Legal State MPs, of course if they succeed to bring in at 66 of the needed MPs to vote. Let’s also add that the factions have brought almost all the members to the NA to participate in the discussion of the program and for the voting. Yesterday especially the RPA members were saying that after May 6 elections President Serzh Sargsyan instructed them to punctually attend the NA sessions and leave behind or cancel or business plans, foreign trips, etc. They should by all means provide adoption of bills with their own attendance. And yesterday especially the businessmen MPs could hardly make it till the end of the discussion of the government program. They will have to go through the same torture today as well.