ArmInfo. Armenia does not intend to leave the Eurasian Economic Union. On March 14, RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this at a press conference.
According to him, the sanctions imposed by the West against Russia are pose a threat to Armenia. <In 2022, a huge increase in the trade turnover of our country with the EAEU states was registered. Meanwhile, there are concerns from Western countries about the possibility of Armenia circumventing the sanctions imposed against Russia. Maneuvering between these poles, Armenia has a good opportunity to further develop the growth rates of the RA economy, but if Armenia suddenly finds itself under sanctions, this opportunity will simply collapse>, Nikol Pashinyan said.
In this regard, the Prime Minister pointed to the importance of representing Armenia on the international platform as a reliable partner. <We must operate within this range, which is as wide in scope as narrow. We must be very careful, since there are both wide opportunities and more than serious threats," Nikol Pashinyan said, emphasizing the importance of free economic zones not creating problems for the country and private business, which is engaged in export-import operations.
The RA Prime Minister recalled the topic of unblocking regional communications, on which there is no progress. <If there were such communications, the country's GDP growth rate would not be 7 %, but 12.13%. We will do our best to increase the economic and investment attractiveness of the country," Nikol Pashinyan stressed, adding that the reputable international rating agencies such as Fitch and Standard & Poor's positively assessed the prospects for the development of the Armenian economy in the near future.
Nikol Pashinyan noted that after four years of active work, they finally managed to sign an agreement on the Amulsar mine, the exploitation of which will become a serious impetus for the development of the country's economy. One of the advantages of this project, as the prime minister noted, is that the RA government will receive 12.5% of the shares in this project. This means that the state budget will receive income from these shares, and another 7 million dollars will be received by the budgets of the communities closest to the mine. Thus, the budgets of the cities of Jermuk, Vayk, Sisian will be almost doubled. And by increasing the budgets of these communities, the opportunities for the implementation of subvention programs will also increase, which will lead to the growth of new jobs, the implementation of new investment projects.