IN OPINION OF FORMER PRIME MINISTER, ARMENIAN ECONOMY IS ILL TODAY, BUT NOT BEYOND HOPE
Noyan Tapan
Dec 26, 2008
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 26, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian economy is ill today,
but not beyond hope as it is not big and can be cured by taking bold
and serious steps. Armen Darbinian, former prime minister of Armenia,
rector of the Russian-Armenian (Slavonik) University, expressed this
opinion during the presentation of the Civilitas Foundation’s report
"Armenia 2008. Crisis and Opportunity" on December 26.
He said that various models of developing the Armenian economy
have been worked out since the country’s independence. In 1991-1997
it became possible to overcome the "collapse" of the Soviet Union
and to replace the inflow of low-quality Iranian goods by domestic
products. However, according to A. Darbinian, attempts to enter the
foreign market from the domestic one and expand the external economic
field have failed. "Unfortunately, we have not done so, as a result
of which we will again return to the policy of cheap import in 2009,"
the former prime minister noted.
In his opinion, in order to take the country’s economy out of the
crisis, it is necessary to replace the declining imports with domestic
production.
However, this requires resources, a competition field, as well as
justice in the taxation field which is absent in Armenia. "We can
stabilize the situation only by ensurung an equal taxation field,
otherwise 1993’s situation is awating us in the domestic production
market in 2009," A. Darbinian said.
The chairman of the Civilitas Foundation, former Armenian foreign
minister Vartan Oskanian said that although a two-digit economic growth
was recorded in Armenia over the past 7 years, today "we are receding",
which is conditioned not only by the global financial crisis but also
by the incorrect policy of the authorities.