VIDEO: This Two-Day Work Gives Me Optimism That We Are on the Right Track, Says Pashinyan

On August 7, under the leadership of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the two-day session of the Economic Policy Council of the Prime Minister was continued and summarized at the Central Bank's Research and Educational Center in Dilijan. This was reported by the government.

On the second day of the session, issues related to the sustainable development of agriculture and the food system, improving agricultural competitiveness through land reforms were discussed. The Deputy Minister of Economy, Arman Khojoyan, presented reports on these topics.

The Deputy Minister addressed the Government's vision for sustainable agriculture, aimed at developing high-value production in the sector, outlining strategic objectives, priorities, challenges, and current programs. He noted that in 2021, the gross agricultural output was 933 million AMD, showing an increase. The effectiveness of the state program for leasing agricultural machinery was emphasized, indicating a 2% annual renewal of equipment; currently, more than 26,000 units of agricultural machinery are available in Armenia, and the successful execution of this program has contributed to increases in productivity in certain sectors, such as the export of fruit and vegetable preserves.

The effectiveness of programs for establishing intensive orchards and agricultural risk insurance was also mentioned. Discussions ensued regarding government agricultural reforms and productivity-enhancing measures.

Questions related to tax rates on food products were raised, along with observations and suggestions.

Another topic was presented concerning the concept of improving agricultural competitiveness through land reforms. It was noted that the concept aims to address issues such as land fragmentation, low accessibility to irrigation water and financial resources, insufficient infrastructure development, and the complexities of property transfer processes. State support programs are already in place to create agricultural cooperatives, subsidize interest rates on rural loans, and more. A pilot program is also planned to be implemented in four settlements to consolidate land, assist in the documentation process through an online platform, and apply other tools.

The Prime Minister noted that the primary reason for the underutilization of land is the absence of a land market, and land reform should primarily be aimed at its establishment. An exchange of ideas took place regarding the presented concept. Possible measures for the development of irrigation infrastructure, increasing farm productivity, and enhancing land usability were discussed.

After discussing the agenda, the Economic Policy Council meeting concluded. Summarizing the discussions, Nikol Pashinyan mentioned:

“Dear colleagues,

Mr. President, we should summarize our work, and I first want to thank all attendees for their active participation. This, in fact, is the preliminary session of our Economic Policy Council, from which we need to be oriented, primarily, about the future course of our works within this format.

We have such discussions very often, and what is the new component of this format? Firstly, the formalization and establishment of the name and secondly, the participation of invited experts in this work. I would like to thank them again for their readiness not only for this but also to continue working in the future.

Today morning we had a brief working discussion, and our main desire is to have an independent group of experts that is neither politically nor otherwise connected to the Government or authority and which will guide the Government’s economic reform agenda as an independent and impartial body.

This is the first point. The second is that it should somehow bridge the Government’s reform agenda and, to put it pictorially, the international expert community because on certain specific topics we may have the need for expert conclusions, and the members of the Economic Policy Council will help us find experts who can provide the best advice for the Armenian government in that field.

We have agreed that the “Center for Economic Prospects” fund, led by Mr. Javadyan, will organize, take on an organizational role in this council's work, and facilitate communication, which is very important.

After these discussions, did I come to any specific operational conclusion for myself or not? I must say, when thinking about what the concrete operational conclusion is from our discussions, I want to return again to the discussions we had at the end of yesterday regarding priorities, but I will slightly reframe it. As a result of the discussions, I came to this conclusion: our sectoral programs are actually diverse, composed of many lines. It is very important that we can identify in management terms those lines that deserve our greater attention because they have locomotive significance.

As for what pictorial example I can give, I thought that if the horses, the yoke, and the cart, to put it figuratively, are placed across different lines of one large program, some movement can certainly be ensured, but it cannot guarantee direction. Therefore, it is crucial that the horses, the yoke, and the cart are arranged properly to ensure progress.

For instance, we have numerous programs where we ensure some movement, but we do not ensure direction. And I am not ashamed to admit that the most vivid example of this is the digitization agenda in the Republic of Armenia, where we recorded that a great deal of effort has been invested in the field of digitization, enormous resources have been spent over the last 20 years, and work has been done, but nothing has happened in terms of digitization. We want to understand what the reason is that such resources have been spent, but in terms of digitization, the Republic of Armenia is actually at a very preliminary stage. It turned out that the same problem exists because we have not resolved the questions of the horse, the yoke, and the cart.

We decided to seek expert help to understand how to transform movement in that field into progress. And when the experts came, they were able to help us understand that there are, so to speak, leading points or drivers in the process, and that more attention should be paid to those drivers that will ensure future progress.

Even with much smaller efforts, expending fewer resources, through proper organization, we can ensure swift progress.

As a result of this discussion, I would give this recommendation to the Government and state management bodies to re-evaluate our programs and see which of their lines require additional regulation and which ones we should elevate to higher lines on the agenda to ensure their movement and, consequently, the execution of both sectoral programs and the overall management program.

Mr. President, allow me once again to express my gratitude to you for your participation. We have agreed that we will continue our discussions in that spirit.

Once again, I would like to thank our invited experts for their very important work. I am confident that the work of these two days gives me optimism that we are on the right track. Moreover, I want to say that we have long thought about this expert issue in the same logic, but have seen continuously that something is not working for various reasons, starting from the fact that sometimes it is impossible to get out of the politicalization, which creates a very serious problem from the very beginning, and we hope that we have found some model that answers our questions.

Once again, I thank you all, we will agree on the next meeting and the working schedule in order.

I wish us all success.”