Saturday, 10 April 2010
Armenia stands by Nagorno-Karabakh, ready to defy any challenge
The Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan-led government delegation has arrived in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic on a 3-day working visit. On the first day of the visit, the Prime Minister went to high school N. 8 after A. Sakharov in Stepanakert to attend the opening of a state-of-the-art computer classroom. This classroom is a gift from the Republic of Armenia to the children of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. The symbolic tape was cut off by RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan and NKR Prime Minister Ara Harutyunyan.
The Prime Minister of Armenia walked round the school building and headed to one of the NKR defense army units.
During the joint session of the two governments, Tigran Sargsyan noted that these already traditional meetings go a long way toward addressing economic and cultural problems. Armenia was said to have recorded high economic performance in the first quarter of 2010 exceeding the government’s expectations 2.5 times. According to Tigran Sargsyan, this was achieved through well-advised economic policy pursued amid crisis: “Like many other countries of the world, Armenia met with serious economic problems last year, aggravated by reduced private investment. Construction – the key driving force of our economy over the past few years -suffered most of all. The government had to take drastic measures taking up the level of public investments. Amid shrinking private investment, the government resorted to expansionary policy backed by the recent years’ accurate macroeconomic policy,” Tigran Sargsyan said.
Considering this very fact, Armenia’s strategic partners propped up our country by means of lending. Based on the logic of high-spending expansionary policy, emphasis was placed on infrastructures: roads, irrigation network, housing etc. As stated by the Prime Minister, road sections to a total length of 406 km were built last year alone. Sizeable construction efforts were made in the disaster zone. Pensions and family benefits will go up 16% and 13 % respectively as of this year. “Small and medium-size enterprises were in the government’s focus last year. About AMD 17 billion worth of treasury support was made available to such enterprises, with USD 50 million loan resources extended from the World Bank. This was backed by considerably eased fiscal burden, higher VAT threshold and the waiver of inspection checkups in this type of enterprises,” the head of the executive noted in particular.
Tigran Sargsyan further stated that despite the existing bottlenecks, serious progress was achieved in all the areas of economic activity in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic: all the projected programs were carried into effect. Tigran Sargsyan assured the local population that Armenia will stand by the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, ready to defy any challenges whatsoever.
NKR Prime Minister Ara Harutyunyan thanked the government of Armenia for support by noting that Armenia has always backed Nagorno-Karabakh ever since independence. “Artsakh used to be supported every way even in 90s when Armenia itself was in hardship. This was the case last year as the two States faced the global crisis. Due to the above, Nagorno-Karabakh recorded a 13.1% growth against 14.3% in 2008, which is a fairly good achievement as compared to other countries,” the Prime Minister of the NKR said.
He briefed the Prime Minister of Armenia on his government’s energy-, welfare- and tourism-related agenda. Tigran Sargsyan told the heads of the agencies concerned to discuss the existing problems and come up with relevant proposals.
Following the session, the two prime ministers answered the journalists’ questions.
Next, the delegation visited the secondary school after Mouratsan in Shushi to attend the opening of another computer classroom donated by the government of Armenia. Headed by the Prime Minister, the delegation called at Artsakh-Fruit CJSC and visited various construction sites as funded by Hayastan All-Armenian Fund.
Later today, RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan will meet with NKR President Bako Sahakyan.
