Friday,
Ruling Party Sets High Growth Targets For Armenian Government
(UPDATED)
. Sargis Harutyunyan
. Artak Hambardzumian
Armenia - President Serzh Sarkisian and Prime Minister Karen
Karapetian head to a cabinet meeting in Yerevan, 6Oct2016.
Acting on a recent speech by President Serzh Sarkisian, the leadership
of his Republican Party (HHK) has told Prime Minister Karen
Karapetian's government to ensure that Armenia's economy grows by 5
percent annually.
The HHK's governing board headed by Sarkisian met late on Thursday to
discuss the government's new policy program that will be debated by
the Armenian parliament soon. The document has not been made public
yet.
According to the HHK spokesman, Eduard Sharmazanov, the board
"proposed" that the government commit itself to achieving faster
growth and meeting other ambitious socioeconomic targets set by
Sarkisian in his May 18 address to the newly elected National
Assembly.
"In the course of 2016-2040 we must ensure an average annual GDP
growth of around 5 percent," the president declared in that extensive
speech. He said this should result in a more than fivefold increase in
Armenia's GDP that was worth less than $11 billion last year. This
requires, among other things, a further improvement of the country's
business environment, he said.
Karapetian's cabinet expects economic growth to accelerate to at least
3.2 percent this year. It has forecast slightly higher growth rates
for 2018 and 2019.
"The indicators [demanded by the HHK] are quite ambitious but we are
not afraid of setting higher targets," Finance Minister Vartan Aramian
said on Friday. "In his speech, the president set the bar high for the
government and we must attain it."
"We need faster economic growth in order to solve socioeconomic
problems more easily," he told a news conference. "Ambition means
efforts. Time will tell whether we will succeed."
In Aramian's words, the government thinks that economic growth will be
stimulated by its structural reforms, greater foreign and domestic
investments, and a continued rise in exports. Growth reached 6.5
percent in the first quarter of this year, the minister said.
Sharmazanov would not say whether the government will have to resign
if growth falls short of the 5 percent target. "I don't answer
questions with `ifs,'" he told reporters. "I'm just telling you that
we are optimistic. We think that with joint efforts we need to ensure
that the current government and the political majority # achieve
within five years the positive targets that were set."
"Under the current constitution, this government will have to resign
one year later. What kind of a [new] government will be formed? We'll
talk about that in 2018," he said.
Sharmazanov referred to the April 2018 end of Sarkisian's final
presidential term, which will be followed by Armenia's transition to a
parliamentary system of government. Sarkisian has yet to clarify
whether he plans to become prime minister, replace Karapetian by
someone else or keep him in office. The premier has repeatedly
indicated his desire to retain his post.
Armenian Leaders Laud Russia's Gazprom
Armenia - Prime Minister Karen Karapetian (L) and Gazprom CEO Alexei
Miller visit the site of a children's educational and sporting complex
constructed by Gazprom in Yerevan, 16Jun2017.
President Serzh Sarkisian and Prime Minister Karen Karapetian praised
Gazprom's strong presence in Armenia's energy sector when they met
with the chief executive of the Russian gas monopoly in Yerevan on
Friday.
Alexei Miller, Gazprom's Kremlin-linked boss, held separate meetings
with the two leaders during his latest visit to Armenia, the second in
eight months. Official Armenian sources said they discussed the
Russian giant's continued operations in the country but gave few
details.
Sarkisian was quoted by his press office as commending Gazprom's
contribution to the "dynamic development and strengthening" of
Russian-Armenian relations. He also praised its track record in
Armenia, which buys more than 80 percent of its natural gas from the
Russian giant.
Karapetian described Gazprom as a "reliable partner" that has
contributed to his country's "energy security." According to an
Armenian government statement, he discussed with Miller the company's
ongoing "investment projects" in Armenia.
In particular, the statement said, Gazprom plans to upgrade an
underground gas storage facility located just north of Yerevan and
build new gas distribution pipelines in the country by 2019. The
state-run Russian company is the sole owner of the Armenian gas
distribution network.
Karapetian was that network's chief executive from 2001-2010. He lived
and worked in Russia from 2011-2016, holding senior executive
positions in local Gazprom subsidiaries.
Shortly after being appointed as Armenian prime minister last
September, Karapetian used his Gazprom connections to secure a sizable
reduction in domestic gas prices. Miller previously visited Yerevan in
October.
In a recent radio interview, Karapetian insisted that his Gazprom
background does not mean he is dependent on or linked to Russia's
government. "On the contrary, it can help us find solutions in certain
difficult situations," he said.
Armenian opposition figures and pundits have long expressed concern at
the country's heavy dependence on Russia for energy resources.
3 Armenian Soldiers Killed In Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh -- An Armenian soldier of the self-proclaimed
republic of Nagorno-Karabagh runs in trenches at the frontline on the
border with Azerbaijan, 25Oct2012
Three Armenian soldiers were killed on "the line of contact" around
Nagorno-Karabakh on Friday in what the Karabakh Armenian military
called a ceasefire violation by Azerbaijan.
Karabakh's Defense Army said the three conscripts -- Arayik Matinian,
Vigen Petrosian and Vartan Sargsian -- died after Azerbaijani forces
fired anti-tank grenades at one of its frontline positions east of the
disputed territory. "An investigation is underway to clarify details
of the incident," it said in a short statement.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry did not immediately react to the
report. The ministry said on Friday morning one of its soldiers was
shot dead by the Armenian side. It did not specify where the conscript
died.
Azerbaijani media reported later in the day that another Azerbaijani
serviceman, a 26-year-old contract soldier, was also killed in
action. The Defense Ministry in Baku did not confirm the information.
The combat deaths come just days after the U.S., Russian and French
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group visited Armenia and Karabakh for
further talks on ways of reviving the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace
process. They will travel to Baku this weekend or early next week.
In their most recent joint statement released on May 18, the mediators
urged the conflicting parties to "take all necessary measures to
prevent any further escalation in the conflict zone."
Radical Oppositionist Slams Government `Clients'
. Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia -- Zaruhi Postanjian, leader of the Yerkir Tsirani opposition
party, speaks to RFE/RL in Yerevan, .
Zaruhi Postanjian, an outspoken opposition politician, lashed out at
the opposition Yelk alliance on Friday, saying that it was created by
the Armenian authorities to weaken their genuine political opponents.
"It's obvious from their political positions that they cannot be in
opposition because those positions match the current illegitimate
regime's positions," Postanjian told RFE/RL's Armenian service
(Azatutyun.am).
In particular, she pointed to Yelk's failure to voice support for
jailed opposition gunmen who seized a police station in Yerevan last
year and its refusal to boycott this week's inauguration of the city's
reelected pro-government mayor, Taron Markarian.
One of Yelk's leaders, Edmon Marukian, disapproved of the deadly
attack and pointedly declined to describe the gunmen as political
prisoners late last week, saying that their actions had "elements of a
crime." By contrast, Postanjian and other radical opposition strongly
support the gunmen.
Yerkir Tsirani, Yelk and the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK)
are the only political groups that ran in last month's municipal
elections and won seats in the city council. The HHK won the May 14
vote by a landslide.
Yelk holds 14 seats in the 65-member council, compared with 5 seats
won by Yerkir Tsirani. Postanjian ruled out any cooperation between
council members representing her party and the bloc co-headed by
Marukian, Nikol Pashinian and Aram Sarkisian. She dismissed Yelk as
President Serzh Sarkisian's "clients."
Davit Khazhakian, the young leader of the Yelk faction in the Yerevan
council, shrugged off Postanjian's allegations, saying that she "lost
her parliament seat along with political common sense." "You can
always find political clowns in a society," Khazhakian said. Hardline
groups such as Yerkir Tsirani will inevitably marginalize themselves
and leave the political arena, he said.
Yelk finished third in Armenia's recent parliamentary elections,
winning 9 seats in the 131-member National Assembly. Postanjian's
party was set up in March and did not run for the parliament.
Press Review
"Zhoghovurd" comments on European Union Ambassador Piotr Switalski's
calls for changing the composition of Armenia's Central Election
Commission (CEC) and the Armenian government's angry reaction to his
statement. The paper says that both the EU and the United States have
spent heavily on the proper conduct of Armenian elections and
therefore have "every right to monitor and express opinions on the
extent to which their funding served its purpose." It says that if the
authorities really think that Switalski is meddling in Armenia's
internal affairs they should not have "begged" the EU for money ahead
of the recent parliamentary elections in the first place.
Lragir.am speculates that Switalski's comments have to do not so much
with the elections as their aftermath and, in particular, "the process
of changing the intra-government status quo." "This is what worries
the Armenian authorities," writes the online publication. "It has
called into question their plans and scenarios."
"Haykakan Zhamanak" reports that Prime Minister Karen Karapetian and
his cabinet have received high marks from the leadership of the ruling
Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) for their new policy program that
will be debated by the National Assembly soon. The paper notes that
the HHK set ambitious macroeconomic targets for the government at a
meeting of its leadership held on Thursday. "The problem is that
several governments have been changed in Armenia in the last five
years," it says. "All of them were formed by the HHK. This government
is also the HHK's. And totally different indicators have been
registered in the last five years."
"Hraparak" writes that the number and professional level of young
people graduating from Armenian universities each "do not correspond
to real demand." "Every year we produced hundreds of journalists,
philologists, economists, international relations specialists, who did
not find jobs before getting retrained or leaving the country," writes
the paper. It notes with satisfaction that the number of applications
for university programs on international relations, economics,
chemistry, biology and physics has gone down significantly this
year. By contrast, it says, there is a sizable rise in young Armenians
seeking to become information technology specialists.
(Tigran Avetisian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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