Discussion on Regional Development Issues Held at the Prime Minister's Office

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, a consultation was held at the government today with the participation of governors of the regions, during which the tasks for 2020 and current issues were discussed.

Opening the consultation, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan noted that 2020 is an appropriate time to address more targeted issues of territorial development. “In this regard, in my opinion, we have not just found, but rather determined how we should implement territorial development. Based on the results of both 2018 and 2019, I believe we can state that the subdivision system should become the main driving force for developing this topic. Why is the subdivision system attractive? Because it indeed creates a very concrete field of cooperation and gives a new quality and level to relationships, as these programs involve communities and the government. In other words, the community, by being involved with its own resources, shows greater interest, and this allows us to present very concrete examples to citizens of how their paid taxes manifest in reality and how they change their lives. The participation of the government, of course, is a great incentive.

You know, for the second year now, we have allocated 10 billion drams from the state budget for subvention programs. I received information today that we have implemented subvention programs worth a total of 16 billion drams in the regions, and communities still cannot fully utilize that 10 billion drams each year. But as I have said several times, the principle will be as follows: at the moment our communities utilize the 10 billion drams, the allocation from the state budget will increase by 1 billion drams, 2 billion drams—whatever our communities can make use of those subventions. During this period, what conclusion have we reached? Our conclusion seems to be unequivocal that subvention programs are more successfully implemented by consolidated communities, where there is a certain concentration of financial resources, and in this regard, we talk about both volume and quality.

As you know, I have also visited communities to arrive at conclusions locally regarding the progress of subvention programs. The implementation of these subvention programs should also help all of us to demonstrate to our citizens the impact of their choices in local self-government elections on their lives, because it is clear that sometimes, unfortunately, the cause-and-effect relationship is not perceived by our citizens. This system also provides us with the opportunity, in purely economic and political terms, to have a new level of dialogue with our citizens regarding the quality of local self-government bodies’ work.

This year we have also included another important component in the subvention program: a third party can also participate in subvention programs; that is, the private sector, benefactors, and those who want to participate in community development. Here, a philosophically very important change is taking place. Many entrepreneurs and benefactors are working to implement projects in their native communities. Naturally, no matter how great these people's opportunities are, they have certain limitations; very often, private sector funds are spent on symbolic works and are excluded from development-logic programs. In this case, when three entities—the private sector, the government, and the community—can put in resources, it means that we can transition from a philanthropic, purely symbolic logic to a development logic. Therefore, the cornerstone of our territorial development strategy should be subvention programs, and we should also ensure that the projects carried out by the government and the private sector in the communities are maximally concentrated in terms of financial resources, so that these financial resources yield more visible, tangible results for us.

Today, we will also discuss the current issues that governors face in their work and will try to find solutions to those issues as well.”

The Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, Suren Papikyan, presented the results of the subvention programs in the regions for 2019. Last year, a total of subvention programs worth 16 billion 378 million drams were implemented through state-community cooperation, of which the state co-financing amounts to 9 billion 597 million drams. “During 2019, based on performance and also taking into account qualitative criteria, we made a transfer of 6 billion 366 million drams. We did not transfer the remaining part to the communities; instead, we have given them the opportunity to complete their work in 2020 and correct mistakes, and only during this year, if the work is done properly, will the remaining transfers be made. This is a very important message to performers, contractors, so that it becomes clear to everyone that the quality criterion is very important for us. That is, we have to operate within the standards that the state requires, and contractors must fulfill their obligations in the way that is specified in the initial requirements,” the minister reported.

As the main issues related to subvention programs, the minister mentioned the quality of projects and the preparedness of performers. According to S. Papikyan, this year, in cooperation with the UN Development Program, it is planned to introduce energy-saving systems worth about 9 million dollars in the regions, which will enable all panel buildings to become energy-efficient, which involves repair of roofs, basements, external walls, reinforcement, and also changes to the external appearance.