Economist Advises Armenian State Officials to Live with the Villagers

It’s very difficult today to talk about the economy, since, essentially, we don’t have an economy — it’s hard to speak of an economic policy as we don’t see such a policy, said Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) MP Ara Nranyan, speaking to journalists in Yerevan today.

“It’s been how many years now that we’ve been talking about the same problems and the greatest progress that’s taken place is that the government likewise has begun speaking about these issues. However, unlike opposition politicians, professionals and experts, the government’s first function has to be resolving these issues,” he said, adding that the Armenian government is stalling for time and continues to take on loans.

In the deputy’s opinion, if it continues this way, “they will acquire loans next year as well.”

“Our country and our citizens have not become a country and nation that earns money in the global economy and for this reason we will always be condemned to acquiring debt and deepening our already difficult socioeconomic situation,” he said.

Addressing agricultural issues, Nranyan said today investments are being made neither in Armenia nor in the rest of the world, and since the only hope in Armenia is good weather conditions, people are afraid of investing money in the agricultural sector.

Economist Tatul Manaseryan, another participant in today’s press conference, however, said there are changes in the agricultural sector.

“The first important change is that finally they got officials out of their offices — those who, as per their position, are obliged to spend their days in the villages and not in their offices. This was a mandatory move, and I think this is the first precondition, to be by the villagers’ side, not to go to villages on tourist visits, but to live with the villagers, to know what the problems are from them and also to study the solutions,” he said.

Nranyan sees the solution as being a change in economic policy, which, in his words, the government is currently not working on. “The only important thing in our economy is predictability and this is what is absent from our economy.”