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

The government approved the draft laws of the Republic of Armenia on making amendments and additions to the Code of Civil Procedure of the Republic of Armenia and related laws. According to the substantiation, the examination of judicial practice, as well as the surveys conducted among the judges examining civil cases, allow us to conclude that the huge number of civil cases is one of the main reasons leading to the violation of the principle of examining civil cases within a reasonable period of time. As the Minister of Justice Grigor Minasyan noted, the study of judicial practice indicates that the workload of the courts is largely due to the large volume of lawsuits demanding the confiscation of money and issuing payment orders, in particular, from 2020 to 2022, about 441,128 claims were submitted to the court of general jurisdiction, of which 395,149 were claims for confiscation of money. In this number, a large share goes to lawsuits and applications submitted by organizations providing gas, water and electricity, as well as banks and insurance organizations. An option for solving the above problems can be the introduction of alternative efficient mechanisms for solving cases with claims for confiscation of money. The bill proposes to submit a part of the cases with demands for confiscation of money to the examination of notaries, providing for clear criteria that will allow defining the scope of cases subject to the examination of the notary.

The Government approved the program to provide Yerevan with additional new gas supply capacities and the schedule for the construction of gas distribution hubs. According to the information provided by "Gazprom Armenia" CJSC, due to the large-scale construction carried out in Yerevan in recent years, the volumes of gas consumption have increased sharply and the capacity of the gas pipelines of the gas distribution stations feeding Yerevan is no longer sufficient for connecting new gas consumption systems to the existing gas distribution network. Provision of technical conditions for connection of new gas consumption systems from existing infrastructures can disrupt the implementation of uninterrupted and reliable gas supply, which makes impossible the process of providing the most efficient technical conditions for gas supply for the construction of new residential buildings in Yerevan. After drawing up the design budget documents and reaching final agreements, the works will be implemented in the following stages: North-East, South-West, South, East sections. As a result, it will be possible to reduce the total costs of infrastructure creation, to minimize or neutralize the impact on the tariff and to ensure the proper operation of the infrastructure created by the supplier company. As a result of the works, infrastructures will be created in the entire area of Yerevan.

Nikol Pashinyan highlighted the adopted decision and noted. "This is an extremely important issue in terms of improving the investment environment. We have been facing situations for a long time when, for example, residential buildings are built, ready for commissioning, but, in fact, cannot be put into operation because they have infrastructure problems. We have observed that this is a very significant factor in terms of improving the investment climate. Also, taking into account that certain opportunities have arisen, we have discussed and decided to use these opportunities in that direction, which is a very serious strategic investment in terms of improving the Republic of Armenia and the investment environment and, in general, providing proper services to citizens."

According to the Government decision, 224 million AMD have been redistributed from the funds allocated to the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport by the state budget 2023, which will be directed to the creation of educational complexes and the construction of schools in Vayots Dzor and Tavush Provinces, as well as to the acquisition of design and budget documents necessary for the construction of schools in the urban settlements of Syunik Province. Thus, it is planned to allocate money for a total of 23 institutions – cosnstruction of 9 educational complexes and development of design budget documents and the acquisition of expertise services necessary for the construction of 14 schools. As a result, more favorable building conditions for education will be provided.