Economist: the economic model of Armenia`s development has completely exhausted itself

ArmInfo. In Armenia, addressing  economic issues requires the political will of the authorities.  Today's situation in the country's economy speaks of its absence.  Economist Vahagn Khachatryan stated this on November 6 on the margins  of the conference dedicated to the issues of entrepreneurship  development in Armenia.

According to him, the solution of economic issues in Armenia is on  the political plane. "We are talking about corruption and fair  government, solving problems with corruption, we can solve 70-80% of  the number of challenges facing the republic today," he said.

According to the recommendations of the World Bank (WB), as noted by  the expert, good governance of the country implies an effective fight  against corruption and the establishment of the rule of law.  "Armenia, if we consider the period from 1996 to 2016 in the line of  eradicating corruption, did not record positive changes, on the  contrary, there is a regression," Khachatryan said. Regarding the  rule of law, if there is some progress, then, according to the  expert, it is very different from international standards, and among  the countries of Europe and Central Asia, the republic is below the  average level. Thus, according to the expert, if the powers that be,  in fact, are full of the desire to create for the good of the people,  then do not reinvent the wheel, but just listen to the world's best  practices.

According to the economist, today the economic model of Armenia's  development has completely exhausted itself. The World Bank on the  basis of two-year research, calling for a different model, he noted,  previously voiced this assessment. The results of this policy,  according to Vahagn Khachatryan, were reflected in the report  published on the eve of the National Statistical Service on the  social picture of the country for 2016. "The document, firstly,  recorded that from 2004-2016 90% of Armenian households have a daily  income of up to $ 10, which, in fact, means a lack of development,  for the simple reason that the government does not set itself such a  task," he pointed out. This is explained by the fact that the  government does not want to have an independent political group,  which will not go on sale of its electoral vote for 10,000 AMD.

In addition, the erroneous model of the country's development has led  to a demographic crisis - the country's population is not only  declining in absolute terms, but is also aging. "All this indicates a  fiasco of the economic policies of the current authorities," the  economist said.

The quality of the current government, as the expert said, also  speaks of his legislative activities. Referring to the document on  the relative effectiveness of the legislative activity of the  National Assembly of the 5th convocation, Vahagn Khachatryan noted  that the legislation on tax and customs duties and state payments as  a whole was revised 200 times, only the RA Law "On State Duty" - 38  times, RA Law "On VAT "- 18 times, RA Law" On Income Tax "- 15  times," On Profit Tax "- 12 times. "And this, in the event that  international experience recommends not to touch the tax legislation  for at least 5 years, so that the business has time to adapt to it,"  he said. In addition, as noted by the expert, 9 out of 10 laws were  initiated by the government, and every second law was adopted  urgently, and this is in case that the Armenian parliament is  considered professional. All this, shows that the Armenian Cabinet of  Ministers is interested not in business development, but in the  replenishment of the budget.