Friday, 19 February 2016
Ministry of Diaspora 2015 Performance Report Summarized
Chaired by Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan, the Cabinet discussed today the annual performance report of the Ministry of Diaspora, which covered the Ministry’s key activities, its compliance with the Government’s action plan, priority tasks and estimated performance in 2015.
Minister Hranush Hakobyan noted that the Ministry actively participated in all the preparatory and organizational activities of the State Commission for coordination of events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. In particular, the ministry ensured the participation in the State Commission’s meetings of Diaspora representatives, heads of regional commissions, as well as work was done on the production and dissemination of necessary information and promotional materials (in 50 countries today operates 61 regional commission on coordination of events dedicated to the 100 year-old anniversary of the Armenian Genocide).
As part of the programs of the State Commission on Coordination of the events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, on April 22-23, Yerevan hosted a global forum “Against the Crime of Genocide,” on the sidelines of which at the initiative of the Diaspora Ministry an International Scientific Conference entitled “International legal problems of the prevention of crime organized genocide and the responsibility for it” was held.
According to the Minister, under the program “Organization of the process of integration of Armenians from the Diaspora” the ministry managed to resolve many legal, social, health and educational issues aimed at settling in Armenia Syrian and Iraqi Armenians, as well as to organize cultural activities, summer camps, evenings for the year, courses of Western Armenian and Russian languages.
The Minister said that efforts were made in the frame of several programs to promote the command of the Armenian language among the Diaspora youth and improve their communicative skills, including the use of innovative mechanisms.
Under the Tele School of the Armenian Language program over thirty hours of TV broadcast were aired in the Armenian communities of the Diaspora. Continued work was carried out to expand the converter from Eastern to Western, and vice versa. Educational institutions of the Diaspora were provided about 46,000 units of training materials. Supported by the Ministry of Diaspora, 5 new one-day schools were founded, the “Problems of convergence of Eastern and Western languages” was organized, different teleconferences on various issues of education, and others.
Minister Hakobyan further informed that pursuant to a series of government resolutions, a number of programs for Diaspora young people to get acquainted with the homeland, such as “Come Home,” “We sing Komitas” pan-Armenian festival and the program of the Summer School were organized in 2015, based on a a list of activities of these programs.
Appreciating the work of the Ministry of Diaspora, Hovik Abrahamyan stressed that the Ministry had done a lot of work in the period under review, and that its active participated in the activities dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide was significant.
The Prime Minister pointed to the need to ensure active involvement of businessmen from the Armenian Diaspora in the Armenian economy, and in this context, considered it necessary to hold business forums in Armenia with participation of businessmen from the Diaspora.
