THE SOCIAL-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PROBLEMS IN SHIRAK PROVINCE (MARZ)
By Gegham Mkrtchian
AZG Armenian Daily
03/05/2007
According to the statistics the unemployment percentage in towns
of Shirak is bigger than in the villages of the province. Artashes
Boyagian, lecturer of the State Pedagogical Institute of Gyumri,
explains it like this: after the privatizations of land the people
of the villages got something to do, compared with the people of the
town, who became unemployed after the privatization of industrial
plants and factories.
According to the statistics of A. Boyagian the employment percentage
of 2001 became lower with 59.800 people (49.5oo in Gyumri) compared
with 1988 in the spheres of industry, agriculture, construction,
transport, communication. In the province the figure of 95.000 workers
went down up to 36.200. The employment percentage of these spheres
went down from 66.4 % up to 19.9 % in the total employment percentage
of Gyumri. It means that the town became a consumer instead of the
industrial producer.
In the last 15 years the government didn’t do any efforts not only to
strengthen the industry of the town, but also to take care of what
it had. Moreover, since 2003 according to the Government decisions
the industrial buildings of the town has been removed and sold at
very low prices. The government and regional officials has not even
worked out a Project of Industrial Development of Shirak.
The researcher thinks that its time to change the passive policy of
the employment market of Shirak into active one: increasing the work
values and the percentage of employment in the sphere of industry.