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

The Government approved the fifteenth activity to mitigate the pandemic’s adverse economic impact, under which river banks will be built in Armenia’s highlands with the involvement of the local population. The project provides that forest layers shall be created in river valleys through local willow cuttings. The local population will be widely involved in this campaign. Additional jobs will be generated in this way to counter the income-related risks for the population.

Prime Minister Pashinyan noted in this connection: “Three different organizations will implement tree planting activities in the provinces mediating paid work which will result in about 1000 temporary jobs.” The Premier stressed that the government intends to make this program continuous.

The Executive amended some of its anti-crisis programs. In particular, 36 thousand households shall become 8th event beneficiaries. Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Zaruhi Batoyan said that in addition to envisaging new activity areas, the amendment will provide for civil contract-based employment. The project has a budget of over 2 billion drams. Applications shall be received on May 4.

Nikol Pashinyan advised that around 54.9 billion drams have been distributed so far as part of the government’s anti-crisis campaign. “22 thousand business entities and 775 thousand individuals have already benefited from the program. Today’s decision will expand the range of program beneficiaries,” the Head of Government said, noting that the Government monitors the implementation process to ensure that the assistance is maximally targeted and effective.

Nikol Pashinyan next referred to the 14th program, which provides support to those students of higher educational institutions involved in graduate and postgraduate programs, “With this program, we are helping all students without exception, with the difference that the support is tangible for high-performing students and less tangible for low-achieving students.”

The Government decided to provide financial assistance to the Great Patriotic War veterans on the occasion of the 75th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. Each veteran will receive 300,000 drams.

The Government amended one of its previous decisions in order to increase the amount of compensation offered to servicemen traveling as far as 350 kilometers to and from the place of location for leave of absence.

The meeting next amended the program of interest rate subsidy on agricultural loans. In particular, the range of entities wishing to participate in the program shall be extended by raising the loan threshold (up to 50 million drams) for the development of new target areas - cattle breeding, sheep breeding and goat breeding.

The Prime Minister noted that the decision was made on the basis of community feedback on agricultural programs. “About 10 days ago we met with marz governors who came up with relevant proposals, 90% of which we accepted and made this decision. We hope that it will be a very good signal for our farmers, and they will thereby get involved in the decision-making process,” Nikol Pashinyan said.