"This is work that needs to be done continuously": Pashinyan

During a government meeting, I once advised that our road builders and those working on infrastructure should follow the broadcasts of major international cycling competitions, as they provide the most information about roads. This was stated by the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, during a government session on May 30.

"For example, I watch with interest and I don’t see, for instance, a road that goes under a rock or a soil cut without a retaining wall; such a thing simply doesn’t exist. That is, if there is a road that is lower than any flat area, there must be either a retaining wall or protective nets; it is excluded that you would simply go along a road and look up and see soil, such a thing doesn’t exist. The other is also obvious; all of this has not been done in one day; this volume of work has not been done in one day, one year, not even in ten years; it is a culture that is done continuously. If we decide now that in the upcoming five years we must bring all of our roads to that standard, it is not only unrealistic, but it is not even worth thinking about, but we must accept this as a fact," said the Prime Minister.

He also noted that in Europe, in those rivers where increases in water flows have been recorded, there is not a single bridge whose foundation is not protected by additional construction; we do not have anything like that in Armenia. "This is work that needs to be done continuously; that is, it is also a matter of standards, but we also know that the more we raise the standards to attain higher quality, the more the price increases. We should not shy away from inviting international partners, and importantly, pay these people properly to receive quality services. And in the end, in the matter of expensive versus cheap, there is an old Armenian saying that states, ‘the cheap is not less than the expensive,’" he added.