A regular Cabinet meeting took place today, chaired by Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan.

The Government approved the draft law of the Republic of Armenia "On the State Budget of the Republic of Armenia for 2022".

Before starting the discussion of the draft law, the PM said, ‘’Dear colleagues, today the Republic of Armenia is facing difficult challenges. The catastrophic economic, social, and security-linked consequences of the pandemic and the 44-day war have not yet been overcome. As a result of the National Assembly elections of 2021, the domestic political crisis was overcome, creating quite firm basis for consolidation and fulfillment of the Armenian people’s aspiration to look to the future. In August, we presented the Government's Action Plan for 2021-2026, which should create the basis for the peaceful, sustainable and inclusive development of the Republic of Armenia in the medium term. Our goals, reflected in the budget for 2022, and also in the Action Plan, are ambitious and realistic.

We realize that not only economic intervention by the Government but also social and cultural transformations are needed to bring them to life. First of all, we highlight the increase of the efficiency of the public administration system, and the transformation and development of the working culture. The most important, perhaps, is the culture of planning and implementation, the process of implementation of programs, the imperfection of which leads to underperformance of capital expenditures, and consequently to the slowdown in the implementation of the goals set by the Government, thus hindering economic growth.

Here, the capacity building of the private sector also plays an important role. And the Government's efforts aimed at that goal have begun to bear fruit, in the person of the companies making investments for becoming competitive in the state-owned capital construction sector, thus striving to deliver quality projects on time. The Government intends to continue its investment promotion policy in this area, using three main tools for that. The first is the transparency of the public procurement system, the second is the increase of the scale of the tenders, the third is the legislative innovations aimed at simplifying the relations with reliable companies.

The next key issue is the development of analytical skills, which will increase the cost-effectiveness of expenditures, investments, the correct targeting of social programs, which is one of the most important issues. As a result, the confidence of the citizens of the Republic of Armenia that their taxes are spent more efficiently and targetted will increase. The citizens of Armenia must feel the impact of the measures taken by the Government on their lives on daily basis. An important component of this is the broad public involvement of in the various stages of budgeting and its implementation, in the direction of which many steps have already been taken during the past 3 years, and much attention will be paid in the future as well.

The budget for 2022 is based on 3 main priorities. The first is the reform of the security system, the second is the development of infrastructure, and the third is the modernization of education and science. We will be greatly focused on ensuring security, without which it will be impossible to implement the long-term development goals. In this sense, not only the modernization of the army's defense capabilities is important, but also the creation of a favorable external environment around the Republic of Armenia, the consistent implementation of the agenda of opening an era of peaceful development for Armenia, Artsakh and the region. I spoke in detail about our vision for the implementation of that agenda during the parliamentary debates on the Government Action Plan.

In this sense, the reopening and development of regional economic and transport infrastructure is also important, which can qualitatively change the content and structure of the economy of the Republic of Armenia, become an additional impetus for the development of domestic infrastructure, ensure long-term inclusive economic growth, creating equal conditions for Armenian citizens to engage in economic activity and to significantly increase the attractiveness of our country for foreign direct investments. In this context, the development of education is of key importance for Armenia, therefore, access to education, inclusive development and substantive reform is our long-term priority. Our goal is to make a person's education and continuous development a life style. This is the only way to become a competitive nation and individual in the modern world. The development of science and technology is the logical continuation of this process, and here the Government is introducing new funding formulas. Of course, it is not possible to solve all the problems facing the state with one budget, but we must abandon the wheel-slipping situation of doing everything, but in fact, doing nothing.

In the budget for 2022 we have tried to carefully balance the Government's priorities, while ensuring the management of various fiscal risks. We set our strategic goals and the priorities for their implementation in a way that the implementation of each of them creates the basis for the effective implementation of the others. We are confident that the Government's Action Plan will be successfully implemented, ensuring the security, wellfare and dignified life of the citizens of Armenia’’.

According to the draft law, the the state budget of the Republic of Armenia for 2022 will make 1 trillion 946 billion 236 million 135.6 thousand drams in terms of revenues, 2 trillion 188 billion 428 million 509.7 thousand drams in terms of expenditures, and the deficit will make 242 billion 192 million 374.1 thousand drams.

The Government also approved a package of draft laws on amendments to the Law of the Republic of Armenia on Non-Cash Transactions, on the Civil Code of the Republic of Armenia and a number of related laws. The purpose of the bills is to reduce cash transactions. The package of the draft laws will create conditions for citizens to make non-cash payments.

The Government has made redistributions in the state budget, and changes in the decisions made earlier, aimed at providing funding for covering the expenses for electricity, gas and communication services of the population of Artsakh for October 2021, as well as for providing funding for paying salaries, benefits, pensions and health expenses for October, envisaged by the state budget of Artsakh for 2021. The decision envisages allocating 13 billion 473 million drams.

Nikol Pashinyan noted that with this decision, the financial assistance provided to Artsakh since November 2020 is approaching 100 billion drams. "This is very important. We will continue this process with a view that we must transform the logic of merely social assistance with the logic of development with each step in order to foster economic activities in Artsakh’’, the Head of the Government said.