Friday, 5 October 2012
Harmonious Territorial Development - State Budget Favorite
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan participated in the opening of the 2nd rural communities’ conference in Jermuk. Greeting the participants, the head of government said that harmonious territorial development is among the five government priorities.
“Over the coming years preference will be given to harmonious territorial development while making distribution of state budget funds as disproportionate development is an impediment to the development of Yerevan because on the other hand, over-centralization gives rise to functional overload and, on the other hand, it compels our citizens living in different regions to come to the capital city for educational, professional and other purposes, which is a mistake,” Tigran Sargsyan said.
The Prime Minister said that the Ministry of Territorial Administration has developed such methodologies as enable the government to identify needy communities and provide them with targeted financial assistance.
According to Tigran Sargsyan, community development is one of the most important directions in road building: “During our pre-election visits, we were able to listen to community leaders and recorded that road building was deemed as a top priority by most of them. This means that we have to invest additional funds to upgrade inter-community roads,” the Prime Minister noted.
The Prime Minister stressed the importance of the school building: the Prime Minister said the country's 1,400 schools, 300 are currently in need of major repairs, while the state still manages to provide funds for the reconstruction of 59 schools a year.
The Prime Minister said that a large package of reforms and infrastructure development will be presented at the European Union and World Bank-hosted donors’ conference, including the attraction of funds for school rehabilitation purposes. As assured by the Prime Minister, many other infrastructure-related issues - water supply, gasification etc. - will be the center of the government’s attention.
Tigran Sargsyan said that Armenia will continue to work on the modernization of agriculture. “Two years ago, the President set a task for the state to show support to agriculture, we developed a seed-breeding program, and it has already had a positive impact. The imported elite seeds allowed us to significantly increase productivity,” the Prime Minister stated.
The head of government reminded that the state is subsidizing the cost of fertilizers and diesel fuel for our farmers. Noting that work is underway in the Vanadzor chemical fertilizer factory on development of fertilizer production, Tigran Sargsyan expressed hope that the plant will be able to produce such volumes of fertilizers as may cover the domestic demand in 2013.
"Modern agriculture implies high productivity, new techniques and methods. In 50 rural communities we have launched a cooperative-building campaign in cooperation with the World Bank, under which the state provides them with new machinery. A bid is out to double this figure next year,” the Prime Minister pointed out.
The Prime Minister further advised that in 2013 AMD 7.5bn will be allocated to the farming sector in concessional loans, with interest to be subsidized by the state.
Scheduled for October 5-6, the 2nd rural communities’ conference will focus on local self-government and sustainable development-related issues. The conference is attended by government agencies, communities, as well as various local and international organizations and experts working with local self-government authorities.
Each province is represented by a governor-led delegation, made up of ten community heads.
