Thursday, September 26 2019 18:05

ArmInfo. During his working  visit to New York, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan participated in the  "UN Sustainable Development Goals: The 2020-2030 Vision" summit and  delivered a speech, the press service of the government reports.

"We live in a world where inequalities continue to grow and  tendencies of exclusion continue to rise.  Therefore, we need to look  into the ways in which we can work together to mitigate the current  trends and challenges, through positive examples of inclusive  processes.

Currently Armenia is in the midst of implementing an ambitious reform  agenda, aimed at empowering our people, each and every one to use  their talent and energy and make our society more resilient and  prosperous.

"We strongly believe that no progress could be achieved in a society  if the judicial system is not trusted. If the judiciary is not fair,  no sustainable development can be achieved, no economic growth can be  registered, no investments will flow. And we are now in the process  of elaboration on the ways and modalities of reforming our  judiciary'', the Armenian leader assured.

On the role of women in society

"Our peaceful velvet revolution, which took place in Armenia last  year, totally transformed the role of women in the society. Today we  are absolutely convinced that they can bring changes to our country;  hence we are promoting meaningful participation of women in all  aspects of our life. The share of women in business is rising. The  proportion of women in high managerial positions is similar to the  average figure recorded in the European Union. We have more women in  the IT and high-tech sector than the global average. Today we have a  large participation of women in our Parliament, in top positions of  our Government", Pashinyan said.

On economic progress after the Velvet Revolution

The revolutionary changes, as it is generally believed, have a  negative effect on business. Nevertheless, last year our economy did  not show any signs of weakness. On the contrary, our GDP registered a  5.2% growth in 2018. Our financial system has been absolutely stable.  Even our national currency remained stable despite the devaluation of  almost all regional currencies during the last year. In the first  half of 2019 the volume of the foreign investments to Armenia has  grown up to 26%. And last but not least, we have increased the income  part of our budget by 25.1% due to the drastic measures taken by our  Government in the fight against shadow economy.

We are now reforming our tax system to make business operations in  Armenia even smoother.

We are taking steps to become an industrial country and transform our  economy from mining to high tech.  Tourism is yet another important  accelerator of our economic advancement. In particular, we focus on  cultural, ecological, and medical tourism.

In our policies of economic advancement, we focus on human capital.  We place high priority on empowerment and capacity building of our  youth, providing digital technology training. One of the important  achievements in this field is the TUMO Center for Creative  Technologies, where thousands of Armenian teens have the opportunity  to learn new technologies. The Center started out in Yerevan, and has  already expanded to a number of other countries.

On economic and environmental policy The integration of economic and  environmental policies is an important issue for Armenia.  Unfortunately, we are already facing the negative impact of the  climate change having registered a 1.3-degree Celsius average  temperature increase, which makes us the 4th most vulnerable country  in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia. To address this problem, we  have been working to develop an innovative climate finance mechanism  which is part of Armenia's national pledge for the Climate Action  Summit of the Secretary- General.  We put high priority on the  cooperation with the United Nations development system for the  advancement of Smart Development. This process is currently  complemented by the launch of an ambitious Transformation Strategy of  Armenia 2050, consisted of sixteen mega goals.

We still have a lot to achieve. We have to overcome a tangible degree  of poverty in our country. We still have to transform our economy to  technologically advanced and environmentally friendly industry.

The Sustainable Development Goals are designed to promote the values  of human dignity, equality and democracy. And our aim is to revive  and strengthen those human-centered-values.