Prime Minister of Armenia as a whole was satisfied with indicators on economic development of Aragatsotn region

ArmInfo. Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan held a working meeting in the Aragatsotn region of the republic.

Ashot Simonyan, the governor of the region, presenting the Prime Minister of the program for the development of Aragatsotn, in particular, noted that in 2016, the region produced industrial products worth 39.459 billion AMD, which is 13.7 billion more compared to 2015. The production of agricultural products in the region in 2016 was 88.5 billion drams. According to the governor, in the end of this year in the region it is planned to increase the volumes of agricultural production by 2%.

He also said that in 2017 various programs are implemented in the region in the amount of 104 billion 190 million 381 thousand AMD. According to the governor, the region's revenues this year will amount to 3 billion 733 million 419 thousand, which is 235 million drams more than in 2016. Speaking about the regional economy development strategy, the governor stressed that her priorities are tourism, agriculture, industrial production.

Estimating the presented data, Prime Minister Karapetyan considered the indicators of the region's financial development satisfactory, while expressing his dissatisfaction with the plan for agricultural growth in the range of 2%, taking into account that the government sufficiently subsidizes credit programs aimed at the development of modern agricultural facilities. As an example, the experience of creating in the region for government subsidies of an "intensive garden" on an area of 22 hectares with a drip irrigation system was cited. As a result, the owner paid only 100,000 AMD for irrigation within a year, whereas the owner pays 3.3 million annually for irrigation of gardens with the same area using the usual method. In this context, the Prime Minister stressed that the development of agriculture is a priority for the Government of Armenia.  "Agriculture in our country should become a profitable industry," he said.

The Premier also expressed his satisfaction with the works on garbage collection in the region. In this context, it was reported that in 2017 it is planned to increase contracts for cleaning garbage with individuals from 50 million to 150 million, and with legal ones from 19 million to 59 million.

Speaking about the healthcare system of the region, Karen Karapetyan considered a very low figure of 104 million AMD, which falls on the share of paid medical services. According to him, such a low figure is due to the presence of a large share of the "shadow" in the healthcare sector. "Revenues from paid medical services should not be less than subsidies for state procurement, which make up 1.5 billion AMD," the prime minister said.

During the visit, the prime minister visited the farm of Aparan, where 2 million EUR were invested. At present, the farm has 40 thousand birds and 1000 pigs. The manufactured products are sold on the domestic market. In turn, Karapetyan promised to assist the government in the development of the farm.

The Premier also visited the Gurme Durme chocolate factory, owned by Armenians from France. Recently, an additional EUR 200,000 was invested in the company and 20 new jobs were opened. Production of the enterprise is planned to be realized on the domestic market, and also exported to the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union.