We Have Built Poor Quality and Extremely Expensive Roads: Economist on North-South Road Investment Program

The North-South road investment program lacks sufficient institutional capacity to implement the project now, just as in the past, leading to the wastage of borrowed funds by the Republic of Armenia and the construction of poor quality and excessively expensive roads. This was stated by Suren Parsyan, head of the Economic Research Office of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), on his Facebook page.

“The North-South road must be completed. The EU announced that it would allocate 2.6 billion euros in support of Armenia, of which 600 million euros will be directed towards the construction of the North-South investment program in the Syunik region. Interestingly, when former high-ranking officials were asked why this program started with the Yerevan-Artashat, Yerevan-Ashtarak Tranche 1 (where the road was relatively good), they claimed that foreign powers were not interested and were even against the construction of this road from the Islamic Republic of Iran’s border. Come and see, those same Western powers are ready to finance the construction of the road to Iran.

In any case, lies and theft have always been present. Currently, both consciously and unconsciously, people are showing the project of the road passing through Syunik and expressing their concerns about Armenia's territorial integrity.

Let me remind you that the project of this road passing through the center of Syunik has existed for 5-6 years, meaning it was prepared during the previous administration, taking into account the shortest route and the topographical conditions. It should be emphasized once again that this road is of strategic importance for Armenia’s economy, as it will reduce transportation costs, increase the flow of freight and passenger transport; therefore, the road project should not be unnecessarily linked to the border tension situation.

My main concern is that, like in the past, there are insufficient institutional capacities to implement the North-South road investment program, leading to the wastage of borrowed funds by the Republic of Armenia and the construction of poor quality and extremely expensive roads, which I have detailed in an analysis published in February 2018.