Epress.am News from Armenia
According to the Draft State Budget for the year 2017, the RA Government envisages to receive grants in the amount of around 31 billion AMD (about 65 million USD) from foreign countries and international organizations. This number is less than that of 2016 by 500 million AMD and makes up about 2.6% of state budget revenues, according to a statement issued by the Union of Informed Citizens NGO today.
Read the statement below:
– The figure given below shows the dynamics of change in the amount of foreign grants received by the state during the recent years. As it can be seen from the figure, the amount of foreign grants has generally tended to increase after 2013.
As was the case with 2016, the coming year will also see the EU structures and EU member countries as Armenia’s major donors. Moreover, the EU countries are the only ones that provide general budget assistance reaching 9,2 billion AMD to Armenia within the framework of the European Neighborhood Policy. This assistance is not related to jointly implemented projects and is a direct financial assistance to Armenia aimed at improving the countries democracy indicators. However, it is worth noting that the amount of assistance has decreased by 3.8 billion AMD compared to the previous year, which can be related to decline in Armenia’s democracy index.
In 2017, it is also envisaged to receive targeted support reaching 21.8 billion AMD. This group of financial assistance includes the official grants connected to jointly implemented projects. The amount of envisaged targeted grants for 2017 exceeds that of the current year by 4.6 billion AMD. Here again, the major donor is the European Union, which envisages to provide 8.7 billion AMD within the framework of grant programs implemented with EU assistance. This amount exceeds that of the previous year by 4.3 billion AMD.
Below we present the main grant packages within the framework of the 2017 jointly implemented projects (they do not include departmental program grants, as well as foreign equipment and assistance provided to the state agencies):
It is envisaged to receive 1.6 billion AMD within the framework of the project for extension of design period of N2 Unit of the Armenian NPP implemented with the assistance of the Russian Federation. Hence, Armenia will receive 2.3 billion AMD less assistance from Russia compared to 2016.
It is envisaged to receive 2.2 billion AMD within the framework of the grant programs implemented with the assistance of the Development Bank of the Federal Republic of Germany. The amount has decreased by 1.4 billion AMD compared to last year.
It is envisaged to receive 3 billion AMD within the framework of grant programs implemented with World Bank’s support. The amount is less than that of the previous year by 400 million AMD.
It is envisaged to receive 1 billion AMD from the European Investment Bank within the framework of North-South Road Corridor Project (Tranche 3), which is less than that of last year by 200 million AMD.
It is envisaged to receive 800 million AMD within the framework of a rural capacity-building grant program implemented with the assistance of the Kingdom of Denmark. This amount is less than that of last year by 100 million AMD.
It is envisaged to receive 800 million AMD within the framework other grant programs.
In contrast to last year, Armenia will receive additional 2.3 billion AMD from the Global Fund within the framework of grant programs on “Strengthening the Fight against HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis”. It will also receive 1.5 billion AMD within the framework of grant programs implement with the assistance of Eastern Europe Energy Efficiency and Environment Partnership Fund.
Note that numerous foreign donors (USA, UN, Council of Europe, OSCE, etc.) are not in this list because they prefer provision of equipment or direct assistance (for instance, educational) to giving money to Armenian state bodies (to avoid corruption risks).