Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a consultative meeting to discuss the draft concept for assessing public investment programs. Developed by the Ministry of Economy in cooperation with the International Monetary Fund, the draft has already been circulated within the government agencies concerned.

The concept suggests introducing a system for assessing the effectiveness of public investment programs, taking into account the criteria applicable to per-sector planning, evaluation and selection of programs, investment budgeting.

Deputy Minister of Economy Avag Avanesyan gave details of the process of defining and evaluating the public investment program. He touched on the key principles, types of programs, development stages, the authorities in charge, the indicators of qualitative and quantitative assessment, the bank of programs, as well as on the mechanisms for forming an investment committee to evaluate the short-listed programs.

The meeting reviewed issues related to the assessment system and implementation practicalities. Ways of defining the key criteria for analyzing and evaluating public investment programs, the activities to be ensured by the investment committee, interoperability with strategic documents were discussed during the meeting.

The Premier underscored that public investment programs need to be organically linked to the government’s action plan and per-sector strategies in order to ensure the institutional integrity of the evaluation system. Nikol Pashinian instructed to finalize the draft concept and submit it to the government for approval.