12:26,

YEREVAN, APRIL 15, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signaled the launch of the apartment renovation program and expressed hope that it will become a major economic project.

 “Since Soviet times, there are cases of apartments being built especially in provinces and their huge part simply not being used and becoming abandoned.The second issue that we must focus on is that during this period the demand for rental apartments abruptly increased in the country and prices have gone up. In addition, well-known circumstances brought uncertainties for our citizens who were working seasonal foreign jobs, and we thought the following: we will launch a state program that will offer our citizens to take subsidized loans and rebuild their apartments with the condition that 20-30% of these expenditures will be used for energy saving in those apartments,” Pashinyan said.

He said they expect citizens to pay less payments for electricity and gas in the mid-term and long-term and that this investment will justify itself.

“We also expect that with this loan program citizens will be able to rent out the unused parts of their apartments and also develop supply in the tourism sector. We also expect that as part of this program we will ensure with potential jobs our compatriots who are traveling for seasonal work abroad, if they’d be unable to do so,” Pashinyan said.

“Under the first phase we will issue ten thousand such loans and evaluate the course,” he added, noting that if targeted goals are reached in a year the program will be continuous. “A huge part of our housing stock is worn out and we hope that with this we will make a significant investment in both apartments, the economy, small businesses and overcoming poverty,” he said.