21:50,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 31, ARMENPRESS.  Prime Minister Nikol Pashiyan chaired a consultation, during which issues related to the progress of socio-economic inclusion programs and planned measures for people forcibly displaced from Nagorno Karabakh were discussed, the PM's Office said in a readout.

Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatryan, who coordinates the work of the "Humanitarian Center" of the government, reported that 4.4 billion AMD were allocated through regional administrations for the purpose of food security for the forcibly displaced persons located in regions. 112,000 people benefitted from the one-time support of 100,000 AMD. "Later, we defined the support program for rent and utility expenses, by which we supported those who have an apartment in the amount of 10,000 AMD, and those who do not have an apartment – 40+10 thousand AMD. This messure is for 6 months, of which 3 months have already passed. This will continue until March inclusive," said Tigran Khachatryan.

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, 17,000 forcibly displaced students have been admitted to public schools, a scholarship support program is being implemented for 4,000 students in secondary professional or higher educational institutions. This number will increase in the near future.

"We have 69,000 people who are registered in the primary healthcare sector. This is also a channel through which they are able to use hospital services within the framework of the state order. As of today, we have about 7,000 cases in which people also used state-ordered hospital services. We have 20 thousand 656 applications for pensioners or allowance receivers, the pensions of 11 thousand 800 are already being paid. Let me remind you that we have made the payments for all the months following October, simply because the applications are based on registration, the person must be registered and submit an application. This is a process that will continue until everyone is fully integrated into the system. We also have 2408 applicants who applied for allowances, 585 of them actually received their allowances.

In the field of employment, 212 teachers were sent to regions within the framework of our support program, 202 medical workers found work in various institutions. In total, 725 people applied to participate in professional training programs, and we provided an opportunity for legal entities to be re-registered to ensure the continuity of their activities and to be able to smoothly continue their economic activities," said the Deputy Prime Minister. It was also noted that as of the end of December 2023, according to the data of the State Revenue Committee, 10,000 forcibly displaced people were registered as paid workers.

Next, the housing problems of people forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh and the possibilities of their solution were addressed, taking into account the issue of balanced territorial development. In this context, the participants of the consultation exchanged ideas on possible support tools, various observations and recommendations were presented.

Prime Minister Pashinyan emphasized the importance of the harmonization of social programs and instructed those responsible to continue discussions on the presented ideas and proposals.