ArmInfo. The main problems faced currently by the Armenian society, the solution of which the people expect from the new authorities, are unemployment, depopulation, low basic pensions and wages against the background of growing inflation.
This opinion was expressed by Aram Safaryan, Head of the "Integration and Development" Analytical- Research NGO, coordinator of the Eurasian Expert Club, in an interview with ArmInfo correspondent, based on the data of the research report "Armenia in New Conditions" prepared by the club experts.
In addition, according to him, the society expects the authorities to uncompromisingly fight corruption, severely punish all former officials who have been illegally enriched by abusing office authority and bribery and returning to the state treasury the property acquired bypassing the law, to invest these funds into the country's economy in order to obtain further multiplicative effect. At the same time, according to the expert, the Armenian society does not want a vendetta.
Nevertheless, as Safaryan noted, the new year's appeal of the Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan showed that the new government is aware of these impulses coming from society, understands that the time for slogans and revolutions ended with the early parliamentary elections held on December 9, and now it is time for civilian consolidation in order to implement real and deep reforms. "As our studies have shown, the society is now ready to fully assist the authorities in the implementation of these reforms and the resolution of socio-economic problems. It is difficult to say how long the current government will enjoy such goodwill of society. But we believe that this will last at least two years. That is, the authorities have two years to make changes. But during these two years, the authorities must show their competence, not only honesty and decency, the desire to work with clean hands, but also professionalism and efficiency, "he said, recalling that the figures for the last two quarters of 2018 showed that political processes affected the pace of economic growth, somewhat slowing them down, which in principle is an objective, but disturbing phenomenon. Therefore, he stressed, the year 2019 should become a year of economic and political stability, create prerequisites for attracting investment. "Of course, this is not an easy process, businessmen from the Diaspora, are monitoring the situation in the country, refraining from real projects. They are waiting for specific actions of the authorities, the establishment of stability and predictability of processes. The measures taken by the government in 2017, early 2018, created the conditions for further economic growth, which would be able to somewhat improve the well-being of society and reduce the rate of depopulation. Unfortunately, in the second half of 2018 these rates were reduced. And the main task of the government in 2019 should be to restore these rates. The Eurasian expert club believes that if Armenia succeeds in fixing 7% of GDP growth, then within 7-10 years the country will be able to "jump out" from the list of poor states and replenish the list of developing economies, Safaryan said. Summarizing, he stressed that society has positive expectations from the new parliament and government.