Progress in the ongoing efforts aimed at dealing with the economic impact of COVID-19 was discussed in the Office of Government, chaired by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

To begin with, the Prime Minister noted: “The purpose of our meeting is to review progress in the government-approved 9 emergency activities and the findings of an interim report.”

Central Bank Chairman Arthur Javadyan touched upon the implementation of the 1st and 2nd events. As part of the first activity, 229 loan applications were submitted; there are already 7 approved loans totaling 1 billion 63 million drams; 2 organizations have already received a loan, others will do so on Monday. As part of the second activity, 1,117 applications were submitted, 180 have already been satisfied, 150 of which are agricultural microloans, 30 are others, the total amount is about 100 million drams. The remaining applications filed as part of two other activities are being studied. In the meantime, there are some minor technical issues that will be quickly addressed. Feedback will be provided on those applications that do not meet the objectives of the programs. According to Arthur Javadyan, the program is showing good dynamics.

“We can state that the above two programs have actually started to work; at the same time, we are monitoring progress in order to understand what we should do next,” the Prime Minister said.

Minister of Economy Tigran Khachatryan reported on the process of implementing the 3rd activity. About 3000 calls were received to short number 1-09, the number of applications submitted was 210, of which 192 were processed, 25.5 million drams have already been provided. Some of the applications were rejected, the main reason for the rejection of applications was non-compliance with the industry, overdue tax liabilities and non-compliance with the volume of turnover.

State Revenue Committee Chairman David Ananyan touched on the implementation of the 5th activity. He noted that according to the results of monitoring of the information provided for the first 4 days of April 3264 economic entities became beneficiaries of the event. An online notification was sent to them, 496 of them sent applications, the total amount of payment is AMD 67,400 thousand,

Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Zaruhi Batoyan announced the 4th, 6th, 7th and 9th activities. She noted that the identification of the beneficiaries of these programs and the implementation of implementation procedures are being carried out, after which the money will be allocated.

Stressing the need for quick support of specific social groups, Nikol Pashinyan instructed to speed up the implementation of the projected social activities and provide financial assistance to all beneficiaries by the end of next week.

Assistant to Prime Minister Nairi Sargsyan presented the process of implementation of the 8th activity. He advised that a program implementation procedure has been worked out and will be circulated as early as tomorrow. The scope of potential beneficiaries will be defined. A draft website is available for online applications. As soon as the procedure is approved next week, beneficiaries will be able to file online applications and receive financial assistance.

A number of proposals for possible expansion and improvement of the above-mentioned activities were discussed during the meeting. The Prime Minister suggested continuing to monitor all 9 activities, complete the provision of financial support and discuss new ideas in parallel. The Head of Government instructed the responsible officials to report back progress on a daily basis in order to assess the program’s dynamics and effectiveness.