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

In order to identify problems in the system of family allowances and social benefits, as well as to improve the targeting and effectiveness of the system, the Government amended one of its previous decisions. This decision will help create sustainable income opportunities for beneficiary families. According to the rationale, not to be deprived of benefits, able-bodied members of beneficiary families often fail to accept employment offers or actively participate in state-administered employment programs. The amendments stipulate that beneficiaries can continue to receive benefits for 6 months in case of employment of an able-bodied family member. Another parameter for assessing family insecurity will be added - the presence / absence of monthly loan payments in the amount of 100 thousand drams and higher. Touching upon this decision, Nikol Pashinyan emphasized the importance of targeting benefits.

The Government approved a draft amendment to the Law “On Compensation for Damage to Life or Health of Military Personnel during the Defense of the Republic of Armenia.” The bill envisages compensation for damage caused to military personnel’s life or health resulting from an enemy attack. With reference to the legislative initiative, Nikol Pashinyan noted that this is another small but important step towards solving the problems in this sphere.

“Let us admit that there is a great deal of work to be done, but we proceed from the logic that this work needs to be done in a thoughtful, well-thought-out, step-by-step way to really solve problems and not suddenly create new problems. Let us note that with this decision and with the ones passed earlier we do not give a final solution to the problems faced in the field; instead, we are only beginning to address them. The problems are multifaceted, and we will move forward step by step,” the Premier pointed out.

The Government approved the National Strategy for the Protection of Human Rights and the Action Plan for 2020-2022. Deputy Minister of Justice Kristina Grigoryan noted that the Action Plan addresses such important issues as the protection of the rights of persons under the care of the state, as well as the protection of the right to life of persons in life-threatening situations. The Action Plan relates to military personnel, persons deprived of liberty, persons in closed or semi-closed institutions, as well as persons affected by domestic violence.

Nikol Pashinyan noted that the Government will be consistent in protecting and empowering women in Armenia. “There is a very clear problem: women today represent the majority of Armenia’s population, and we cannot speak about serious economic progress without the opportunity to properly realize the potential of the majority of our population, without encouraging women to help overcome poverty of their families,” the Head of Government said.

The meeting went on to approve the investment program of the Masdar Armenia project and set forth a precondition for its implementation. The investment program is based on a memorandum of understanding signed between Masdar and ANIF in July this year, which is aimed at effective cooperation in the construction of solar photovoltaic, wind and floating solar power plants. Then the two companies signed a contract envisaging two stages for the construction of photovoltaic solar power plants with a capacity of 400 MW. At the first stage, it is planned to build a 200 MW power plant and other necessary infrastructure, buildings, facilities, as well as to connect the plant to the power transmission network and commission it by December 2023. The price for 1 kWh will be 2.99 cents (excluding VAT). The program’s second stage implies construction of 200 MW power plants by December 2024. The price for 1 kWh will be 2.95 cents. The Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure was instructed to publicly announce an international tender for each stage, giving other companies the opportunity to apply for the project at a price lower than the one submitted to the Government.