Under the leadership of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and President of the Republic of Artsakh Arayik Harutyunyan, with the participation of members of the governments of the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh, the prospects for Artsakh’s economic development and jointly implementable programs were discussed.
Welcoming those present, Prime Minister Pashinyan stated: “Your Excellency Mr. President, dear colleagues, in the period following the 44-day war, our agenda has changed substantially, and we have considered the restoration of normal life in Artsakh to be one of our primary tasks. During this time, we have done considerable work in that direction, but there is still a great deal of work to be done.
Recently, in working meetings with the President of Artsakh, we have been discussing this topic more frequently — that purely support programs must be transformed into development programs, so that we can reformulate the restoration of normal life in Artsakh and restore the course of normal development of Artsakh’s economy. I am glad that we are already seeing concrete tasks in this direction. Here, of course, it is very important that we find ways to activate banking instruments in Artsakh, which should support the development of the economy and the formation of an investment environment.”
In turn, President of the Republic of Artsakh Arayik Harutyunyan stated: “Your Excellency Mr. Prime Minister, dear colleagues, in the post-war situation, we have unequivocally managed, at the expense of the resources allocated by the Government of Armenia, to maintain a stable social situation in Artsakh. Regardless of the number of displaced persons, we have not had acute problems.
Of course, there are still problems related to housing issues to this day, but social payments have allowed us to solve the problems we see. Socially, the targeted policy of the Government of the Republic of Armenia has solved those problems; in parallel, we have been able to implement certain economic programs, but we must realize that the economy has the problem of needing the injection of much greater resources. In all directions — agriculture, energy, the traditional sectors thanks to which Artsakh’s economy was developing — there have been great losses.
Yesterday we managed to discuss and reach certain understandings; of course, your instructions will be needed so that the ideas we have had become programs. In terms of having a positive demographic picture, in addition to social programs, we will need to implement economic programs aimed at ensuring employment and restoring the economy.
But I also want to cite an interesting figure: under the draft state budget for 2021, we had planned our own revenues at 16-17 billion drams, but we will definitely exceed the figure of 30 billion drams.”
