A Cabinet meeting was held today, chaired by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

The Government approved a legislative initiative developed by the Government concerning the draft law “On Amending the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia” and “On Amending the Law of the Republic of Armenia On Bank Secrecy.” In this connection, Prime Minister Pashinyan stated, in part: “Our political decision is clear: no partial fight will be waged against corruption; we will create such institutional mechanisms as will not call into question the aspirations of the Republic of Armenia, its people and the government in this matter. This is a crucial institutional reform that has been discussed it in all possible ways during the year. We have made a political decision that needs to be stated de jure. Not a single standpoint was ignored during the debate, and this problem must be addressed right now.”

The Government approved applications for the provision of tax and customs benefits to three business entities for the import of technological equipment, its components and spare parts, raw materials and (or) materials as part of the investment program in the priority area. The total cost of investment programs is 2 billion drams.

The Cabinet adopted a decision on implementing road construction and design activities to the amount of 4.5 billion drams through State budget redistribution in the framework of the Rehabilitation of Roads of National Importance program.

The meeting next approved the Government’s legislative initiative on a set of draft laws on introducing amendments to the law “On Reduction and Prevention of Health Damage Due to the Use of Tobacco Products and Their Substitutes” and a number of related laws. The experience of advanced countries in the fight against smoking was studied while development the bill.

The Government amended the procedure, established approved by decision 202-N of February 28, 2019. The amendment sets at 6 months instead of 12 the minimum residual shelf life for drugs at the time of import.

In conclusion, the Government passed a decision on establishing a procedure for interaction between government agencies in terms of foreign affairs, supposed to streamline the rules applicable to recurrent interaction and exchange of information between government agencies in the field of foreign policy.