Prime Minister Karen Karapetian’s cabinet committed itself to implementing “large-scale reforms” in Armenia in a new policy program formally approved by it on Monday.
The Armenian parliament will debate the five-year plan of actions at a special session on Wednesday. The program’s almost certain approval by lawmakers would amount to a vote of confidence in the government that was slightly reshuffled as a result of the April 2 parliamentary elections won by the ruling Republican Party of Armenia.
Presenting the more than 100-page document to fellow cabinet members, Deputy Prime Minister Vache Gabrielian said “large-scale reforms” are at the heart of its key aim: to ensure Armenia’s “sustainable development” from 2017-2022. He said it lists concrete actions that the government plans to take in the socioeconomic, security and foreign policy areas.
“I think the government program is setting quite ambitious targets,” Karapetian said for his part. “We have made clear which goals we want to achieve in terms of economic growth, unemployment, the minimum wage, export volumes as well as the tax-GDP ratio.”
In Gabrielian’s words, the program is based in large measure on economic priorities which President Serzh Sarkisian laid out in his May 18 address to the newly elected National Assembly. “In the course of 2016-2040 we must ensure an average annual GDP growth of around 5 percent,” Sarkisian declared in an extensive speech.
The government’s previous, six-month program approved by the parliament in October promised a tougher fight against corruption, better tax administration and “equal conditions” for all businesses. It described corruption as “the biggest obstacle to the development of the state” and said “conventional approaches” can longer address Armenia’s socioeconomic problems. Opposition politicians dismissed that reform agenda as a publicity stunt.
Despite mapping out its wide-ranging policies for the next five years, Karapetian’s cabinet will have to resign when Sarkisian completes his final presidential term and Armenia becomes a parliamentary republic in April next year. The president has yet to clarify whether he plans to become prime minister, replace Karapetian by someone else or keep the current premier in office.
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