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ARMENIA'S GOVERNMENT TO HAVE 3 PRIORITIES - PM SARGSYAN

news.am

June 18, 2012 | 12:26

YEREVAN. - The Armenian Government's program includes three priorities,

Premier Tigran Sargsyan said Monday during special session of the

Cabinet of Minister. And these priorities are:

1) Economic competitiveness growth, as the main condition for a

long-term sustainable growth;

2) Human capital development; and

3) Institutional capacity building.

As per the PM, the basis of the Government's program is the notion

that the state is obligated to establish for the people the best

opportunities to create and to live in dignity.

"Each and every one must see and feel the results of the changes made

by the Government," stated Tigran Sargsyan.

THE MINIMUM WAGE TO BE DOUBLED DURING COMING YEARS: PM

ARMENPRESS

18 June, 2012

YEREVAN

YEREVAN, JUNE 18, ARMENPRESS: Armenia's economic development based

on internal resources will have the primary role on the country's

economic growth throughout five years.

At the course of the extraordinary session, presenting the Government

program, the head of the Executive Body came forth with the statement.

Sargsyan emphasized the doubling of minimum wage as well as the

raising of labor pension scheduled by the program.

'~R Weak global demand and the essential uncertainties of the outside

world limit the chances of foreign economy resources inflow .Under

those conditions the Government expects to assure export volume

increase mainly through the industrial policy, which suggests

systematic and effective use of internal resources'~R PM Sargsyan

stated.

As Armenpress reports, in accordance to the program poverty rate

is set to be ratcheted up by 8-10 %, total birth rate coefficient

reaching up to 1.8, more than 100 thousand new jobs will be created

during five years.

By the way the number of employees of non-agricultural sphere will

increase by 30-50 thousand.Government actions indicators have been

assessed on the basis of existing trends.

ARMENIA MIGHT BE LEFT WITHOUT BRIDES IN 15 YEARS

Vestnik Kavkaza

June 18 2012

Russia

In 15 years Armenian men will not be able to find a bride or men

with low education and income will not marry at all. The reason is a

possible deficit of females, as at the moment couples often prevent

the birth of girls, Aravot writes.

According to research conducted by the UN Population Fund, together

with the Armenian ministry of health and the Republican Institute

for Reproductive Health, the annual number of abortions connected

to the gender of the possible child reached 1400. The research shows

that now boys are born 15% more frequently than girls. At the moment

there are 118-120 newborn boys for every 100 girls.

According to experts, this might cause severe problems in the future.

Adult men unable to find a wife at home will have to migrate,

which will result in the population decreasing. On the other hand,

the situation will stimulate the growth of prostitution. It can also

strengthen female exploitation and gender inequality, as there will

be more pressure on women to perform their reproductive function.

Sociologist Artak Sagatelyan says that the preference given to the

boys is connected to the low living standards in Armenia. Respondents

explain their desire to have a boy by the fact that girls would have

problems finding jobs, while a boy can at least go abroad, while girls

will have to stay in Armenia and adjust. In addition, it is believed

that in the situation of the undeveloped pension and welfare systems,

boys will be taking care of their elderly parents while girls will

become a part of the other family after marriage.

RFE/RL Report

Sarkisian Demands Faster Growth From New Government

Hovannes Shoghikian, Sargis Harutyunyan

18.06.2012

President Serzh Sarkisian chaired the first meeting of his new but

mostly unchanged government on Monday, telling its members to ensure

that economic growth in Armenia is well above earlier government

projections this year.

Sarkisian finished the cabinet's formation on Saturday, more than one

month after parliamentary elections that were controversially won by

his Republican Party of Armenia (HHK).

As expected, Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian and 13 of the 18

ministers in the previous cabinet retained their posts. Four of the

five new ministers were appointed to positions that were until now

occupied by members of the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), the

election runner-up that decided to pull out of the ruling coalition.

Sarkisian and his HHK will now share power only with the Orinats

Yerkir Party of Artur Baghdasarian, secretary of the presidential

National Security Council. Orinats Yerkir will run the ministries of

agriculture, emergency situations and urban development.

`As you can see, we haven't made revolutionary changes in the

government,' President Sarkisian said at the cabinet session. `That is

conditioned by our intention not to break up the momentum in programs

and reforms that are already in progress. But this doesn't meet that

we will not be expecting revolutionary results from the work of the

executive.'

Sarkisian stressed that the government must deliver on sweeping

changes in the socioeconomic and political domains that were promised

by him during the parliamentary race. `The primary expectation from

the government's work in 2012 is to ensure a 7 percent economic

growth,' he added.

The Armenian authorities had forecast a GDP growth rate of only 4.2

percent for this year. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the

World Bank have come with slightly more modest growth projections in

recent months, repeatedly warning of the fallout from Europe's

sovereign debt crisis.

According to the National Statistical Service (NSS), the Armenian

economy expanded by 4.7 percent in the first quarter of 2012.

Presenting the government's five-year program, Prime Minister

Sarkisian said the growth rate will stand at between 5 and 7 percent

in 2012-2017. He said the policy document also commits the government

to creating 100,000 jobs and doubling the minimum national wage during

that period.

According to Gagik Minasian, a senior HHK lawmaker, the government

will also step up its declared fight against `oligopolies' that

control key sectors of the domestic economy and are believed to hamper

its steady growth. `Internal resources [for economic growth] are still

far from being exhausted, and one of them is a higher level of

competition and the absence of abuse of dominant positions [in

business,]' Minasian told a news conference.

In particular, he said, the State Commission on the Protection of

Economic Competition (SCPEC) will be given new powers to detect and

punish such abuses. Minasian insisted that the SCPEC has already taken

significant ant-trust over the past year.

Hrant Bagratian, an outspoken deputy from the opposition Armenian

National Congress (HAK), dismissed these assurances. `The share of

oligopolies in GDP and tax revenues has increased in the last five

years,' he told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).

Like many other government critics, Bagratian pointed out that the

HHK's parliamentary faction comprises many wealthy businessmen linked

to the `oligopolies.' `They will find ways of cheating,' he

claimed. `Therefore, I think we should discuss not this kind of

statements but a concrete set of measures planned by [the

government.]'

Christopher Walker

Unpublished Letter sent to the Independent on 9 June

Tom Lines (letter, 9 June) is mistaken about the origin of the

current Armenia-Azerbaijan dispute.  Armenia did not engage

in 'aggression across a border' in 1987-93. The events started

to unroll when the people of Mountainous Karabagh, a district

overwhelmingly Armenian but inside Soviet Azerbaijan,

demonstrated in favour of unity with Armenia. Armenia trusted

the legal process of the USSR; however, in Azerbaijan a

slaughter of Armenians in Sumgait (February

1988) looked like an official ethnic response.

Azeri and Soviet forces assaulted Armenian villages in Karabagh

(April/May 1991). Armenia left the USSR, as later did Azerbaijan.

When Elchibey's Popular Front in Baku renewed the attack on

Karabagh villages, it created 20,000 refugees (some put the figure

higher).

But the self-defence forces of Nagorno Karabagh (there was no

Armenian army at the time) re-took most of the villages, and in April

1993 the incompetent army of Elchibey melted like snow in

summer.

New regimes in Baku attempted further attacks, but were repulsed

 with territorial losses beyond the borders of Nagorno Karabagh.

The current cease-fire lines are those established at the end of the

fighting between Azerbaijan and the Nagorno Karabagh forces,

not following a conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

British Armenian All Party Parliamentary Group

 Speaker of Karabagh Parliament in House of Lords, British Parliament.

Complaints have been presented by the Azeri Government to the British

Government for allowing an Address to be delivered by the Speaker of the

Karabagh Parliament , the Rt Hon Ashot Ghulyan MP , on the occasion of

the 20^th AGM of the British-Armenian All-Party Parliamentary Group

(BAAPPG) on Monday 11^th June 2012, in Committee Room One of the

House of Lords , British Parliament.

The invitation to the Speaker had been issued by the BAAPPG , together

with an application for the Speaker’s Visa to the British Embassy in Yerevan

Armenia and the event had been organised to include it in its 20^th AGM ,

as part of the celebrations to mark the Twentieth Anniversary of the Founding

of the Group.

It was the two questions asked by Lord Lea who - although not being a

Member of the Armenian Group but was allowed to attend the meeting,

representing the British-Turkish All-Party Parliamentary Group – that created

the unexpected opportunity for both the Karabagh Speaker and the Armenian

Ambassador Mrs Karineh Kazinian to express their opinions and expose the

facts about the conflict in Karabagh.

It is dubious and illogical that the British Government has – according to the

Azeri Paper -rejected and refuted the recognition of Karabagh’s independence

and existence when in 2009 the Rt Hon Baroness Symons Speaker of the

House of Lords and representing the British Government , herself was

attempting to create the British-Karabagh All-Party Parliamentary Group ,

confirming and recognising by her actions , the very existence and

independence of Karabagh , as no Parliamentary Group can be created

without it’s object and subject being in existence and being independent .

It would be so just and commendable if the British Government who has

lately declared and adopted the democratic right and process of “voting for

self- determination” by the British inhabitants of the Falkland Islands , would

extend the same courtesy and right of “voting for self-determination” to also

the people of Karabagh who find themselves in exactly the same situation

as our valiant and courageous British compatriots in the Falklands Islands .

Twenty years ago when the BAAPPG was founded, it was done with the

hope and conviction that the British Government and its Parliamentarians in

both Houses of the Palace of Westminster , would apply democracy , fairness,

justice and righteousness to all their dealings with their Guest Countries,

even with Groups who are representing countries who although maybe not

be rich in natural resources, but are rich in millennia-old culture and whose

strategic and geographic location – if endangered and threatened -  can affect

every country of the South Caucasus Region , the International Community

at large and can even jeopardize the safe delivery of those natural resources

to their destinations .

According to the Speaker of Karabagh , the Rt Hon Ashot Ghulyan MP, “the

people of Karabagh are asking and deserve the right of voting for self

-determination and the right of Independence, of living in Freedom , Peace

and harmony with all the peoples on this earth , especially with their immediate

neighbours with whom they share lengthy borders and seventy years of good

neighbourly relations while at peace with each other “.

It is also a subject of deep sorrow and worries that during the past year , and

more so visible during the last three months , the Azeri government is

attacking at random and sporadically the Karabagh borders ( even infiltrating

deep into Armenian villages ) , killing at random and retrieving , taking their

dead soldiers with them and producing it to the International Community as

an act of aggression from the Karabagh side . The Karabagh Speaker reiterated

that Karabagh has no wish for resumption of hostilities , is not seeking military

solutions and believes that this complex situation can be solved ONLY by

means of discussions , negotiations , compromises and Peace .

Odette Bazil

Co-Founder and Executive Secretary

British-Armenian All-Party Parliamentary Group

London UK

19^th June 2012.