Thursday, June 27 2019 14:39

ArmInfo. The state authorities should contribute as much as possible to the formation of new production cycles in the country’s economy, both de facto and de jure, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the cabinet meeting on June 27.

 

The head of government introduced the latest May figures of official statistics, noting that, judging by them, the country's economy, fortunately, maintains fairly high indicators, as evidenced by the level of economic activity in May, amounting to 7.3%.

 

According to Pashinyan, the main thing is not just the activity indicator itself, but in essence, the content of this indicator. Thus, according to him, compared with May of last year, exports in May 2019 increased by 15%, and in January-May, according to the results of the first 5 months, increased by 0.1%. The prime minister stressed that this modest figure still indicates that the country managed to overcome the negative trend of the past months during which noticeable drop in export volumes was registered. “I want to remind that earlier we had concerns about the decline in export performance and now this concern disappears, and the analysis of the situation indicates that most likely by the end of the year we will have a significant increase in exports,” Pashinyan said.

 

The Prime Minister supported his opinion by the important circumstance that very serious changes were outlined in the export structure itself, making it possible to speak about the launch of strong, stable, diversified growth. “If last year in exports, the share of the processing industry was 62.8%, this year it was 64.6%, and the share of mining raw materials decreased from 27.6% to 25%,” the head of government noted.

 

Nevertheless, he noted with some regret that the share of high-tech products is still low in exports, although in the first 5 months of the current year the share indicator grew quite well by 29.5%, and the group of products with a medium-technology component grew by 19.4%.

 

“I want to say that these figures are very important and demonstrate that the market, in fact, has welcomed the governmental messages of the“ economic revolution ”. Last September, we talked about the need to accelerate the development of technological industries, the development of export-oriented industries. What we have today is only preliminary impulses, which however demonstrate the beginning of the trend and indicate that the economy and business have correctly evaluated them and correctly perceived these political messages of ours, ”Pashinyan stressed.

 

The Prime Minister informed that a working meeting was held the other day on medium-term expenditures and the government raised the question of a lack of perception of these messages by the government bodies, whereas the state administration system should think and act synchronously in line with economic trends. “That is, the market has received our messages, but the state administration has not, it does not fully understand what we want. This applies to both legislative, executive, judicial authorities, and local governments. And this is our main goal - to ensure the synchronous work of economic entities and government bodies in order to ensure a similar vector of thinking, ”he said.

 

 

In this regard, Pashinyan also called it important to record positive trends in export growth at the expense of agricultural products. There are specific products, the export of which has grown significantly, and in some cases – several-fold. Thus, compared with May of last year, exports of agricultural products grew by 76.6%. Exports of plant products alone grew by 86.4%, half of which accounted for the export of tomatoes (by 171% against a decline in the last year). Exports of strawberries increased 5-fold  (in the amount of 700 thousand US dollars), exports of cucumbers increased 5 –fold (1.1 million US dollars). Export of animal products increased by 60.9%, fresh fish was exported by 61% more (in the amount of $ 3.2 million).

 

In January - May, the generalized figures were more modest - exports of products of animal and vegetable origin increased by 11.8%, of which 12.6% of the increase accounted for agricultural crops, 10.2%- livestock production.

 

As Pashinyan noted, the main export markets for Armenian products remain the EAEU countries, especially Russia. “This topic was always on the agenda of our meetings with the leadership of Russia, as well as with the leadership of Georgia. A lot of discussions have been held, and I want to especially thank our colleagues in Russia and Georgia for the fact that our agreements are respected and implemented. It is very important for our export channels to work reliably and it is very important that the economy continues to operate in an atmosphere of good expectations and good mood.

 

Developing the topic, Pashinyan emphasized that, nevertheless, in the medium and long term, the economy should be built in the outline of logic, according to which it is necessary to export not raw materials, but finished products, bringing export of raw materials to a minimum. - It is necessary to export from the country not mining raw materials, but metallurgical products, not apricots and strawberries, but products processed from them, the premier stressed.

 

In this regard, he said, it is necessary to ensure the development and expansion of production cycles for the processing of raw materials and the production of finished export-oriented products. And it is very important for the government to fully contribute to this process, to create new production cycles, and this should be the main vector of development of the domestic economy.

 

Speaking at the government meeting, Armenian Minister of Economy Tigran Khachatryan, in turn, noted that industrial production growth in May amounted to 5.6%, but it is important that the main growth was due to the processing industry - about 10% growth.

 

He noted three important areas of production that are able to ensure further stable growth and which have great potential for development. Firstly, this is jewelry and cutting production, which this year has grown by 86%. For many years, according to the minister, this trend was traditional, but due to, among other things, objective reasons, it “sunk” significantly. The Minister stressed the existence of serious agreements on the development of this area in the framework of the integration processes of the common market of the EAEU, which open up great prospects for the industry. Secondly, there are prospects in the production and export of chocolate, which grew by 32.7%. According to Khachatryan, there is a new producer of this product in the country, which showed high competitiveness in the domestic market and began to export it successfully, giving very stable indicators. The third direction, according to the minister, is the processing of crop products, whose export volumes for 5 months increased by 18.3%. Thus, Khachatryan noted, the export structure in the country is diversifying and is reaching stable growth rates.

 

Thanking the Minister, Nikol Pashinyan once again stressed the high importance of the rapid response of the state administration bodies to the needs of producers - exporters, creating new cycles. “It is necessary to minimize possible costs, no bureaucratic obstacles, facilitate procedures and remove unnecessary formalities. All government bodies should work on this”.