Tuesday, June 25 2024 19:17

ArmInfo.Over 34 years, we have failed to formulate a simple sentence - what is the vision for the  development of our country, is there such a vision? Economist, founder of the Alternative Research Center, professor Tatul Manaseryan expressed a similar opinion during a press conference on June 25.

He complained that Armenia lacks a national agenda, national  priorities. You can wake up on the wrong foot and decide which union  Armenia should join - the EAEU or the EU. But if there was a national  agenda, Manaseryan admitted that perhaps Armenia would focus on the  Arab world in the context of activating economic ties. "What will the  EU give us? What will the EAEU give us? It will give us nothing!  Move, work! There are national ideas, but we need to set national  economic goals and go for them. And it doesn't matter which  government will do it," the economist was indignant. He noted that  when working out different scenarios, any government can be removed,  but the problem is that none of us can imagine what will happen  tomorrow, how the state and the people will move forward. Professor  Manaseryan also complained that the country does not conduct in-depth  analyses of its existing potential, including in the context of human  resources. He asked whether we know how many engineers, doctors, etc.  there are in the country. "And since we don't know, then who are  these programs for?  Maybe we want to create a space research center?  Do we have such specialists?," he asked. The expert also noted that  perhaps Armenia should shift the negotiations to returning to the  EU's Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+). In this vein, he  recalled that the UN revised the poverty rate in Armenia, to 42% by  the end of 2022. "After this, don't we have the right to go back  there and say that we are not a upper-middle income country or  high-income country? We still have something to do in the GSP+  scheme. Who should do this? We, the expert community, should do this.  I do not want to offend the government, but it is obvious that there  are no professionals there," he said.  The EU's Generalised Scheme of  Preferences Plus (GSP+) is a system of customs benefits that allows  low- and lower-middle-income countries to export more than 6,200  types of goods to the EU market at zero or reduced customs duties.

Armenia has not been using the GSP+ scheme since January 1, 2022.  Since, according to the World Bank, the country has become an  upper-middle income country.