ArmInfo.Such an end was predictable, according to Tigran Jrbashyan, the head of America Management Advisory. He was referring to the Ministry of Economy of Armenia's announcement that the < Highly Qualified Specialists Engagement Program > has been frozen, and the department is currently reviewing the amounts paid under this program in recent years.
<It is sad to see the "Highly Qualified Specialists Engagement Program" failing and becoming the subject of criticism, although such an end was predictable given the distortions it was subjected to over time. As a result, the program lost its original content, format and meaning and ceased to meet the goals it was originally intended to achieve,> Jrbashyan wrote. <What was the original content of the program, what results was this content supposed to give, and is everything irretrievably lost? >, he asks. <In 2019, the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Armenia worked on developing the "Industrial Strategy 2030" project (which ultimately remained a project and as not implemented). Armenia's manufacturing sector was (and still is) in desperate need of modernization. Despite growth in labor productivity, the sector significantly lagged behind the standards of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Eurasian Economic Union (still relevant today), which made Armenian businesses vulnerable in global markets. The main issue was outdated technologies, leading to the adoption of a strategic direction, where the growth of labor productivity in the manufacturing industry would be conditioned by an increase in imports of advanced foreign production technologies and equipment. Merely stimulating imports was not sufficient. In order to modernize production it was also necessary to localize and effectively use the planned imported technologies and equipment. Therefore, within the framework of the strategy, a < Highly Qualified Specialists Engagement Program > was proposed.
The goal of the program was to facilitate and encourage the influx of highly qualified foreign specialists with highly competitive education and a deep knowledge of specific technologies to Armenia. These specialists would not only provide an opportunity to effectively use imported technologies and equipment, but also train local specialists with their experience, leading to the modernization of production and an increase in productivity,> Jrbashyan notes.
According to him, although the program began to be implemented (separately from the strategy), during the period of the influx of relocates from Russia, it was modified and distorted to serve as a tool for retaining them in the Republic of Armenia. The qualification and education criteria required to obtain beneficiary status were relaxed, and the link between specialists' knowledge and the technologies of the production sectors that are of primary importance in the Republic of Armenia was removed. This led to a majority of beneficiaries coming from the IT sector. Consequently, the program's resources were focused on attracting specialists who did not meet the original criteria, as well as mainly in the IT sector instead of the production sector, as a result of which the development of the latter was again pushed into the background, and the intended results of the program were not achieved as a result. Moreover, most of the specialists involved subsequently left Armenia, so the impact of the program even on the IT sector was insignificant. Additionally, Tigran Jrbashyan asks the question: <But is terminating the program the most optimal solution in the current situation? No, because the production sector of Armenia still lacks sufficient development potential and is not competitive compared to developed countries. Therefore, it would be wise to return the program to its origins and implement it in conjunction with the overall strategy, rather than suspending it completely,> Tigran Jrbashyan, head of the America management Advisory, believes.
