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

The Government made redistribution in the state budget, amending one of the previously adopted decisions and allocated money to the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. The decision provides for allocating social support for 6 months to about 100,652 citizens forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh: 40,000 AMD per month to live in temporary accommodation and 10,000 AMD to help pay for utilities. Accordingly, 2 billion AMD will be allocated from the reserve fund of the state budget to provide financial support to 40,000 forcibly displaced people from Nagorno-Karabakh for the month of October. Within the framework of the decision, it will be necessary to allocate 30 billion AMD for the months October 2023 to March 2024.

Nikol Pashinyan also noted that more than 3,000 people forcibly displaced from Nagorno Karabakh have left the Republic of Armenia. "As of today, more than 3,000 people forcibly displaced from Nagorno Karabakh have left the Republic of Armenia. I don't want to draw conclusions related to this topic. Maybe, many of them go to see their relatives, to spend some time. I hope that we give that message very clearly and I also call on our brothers and sisters who were forcibly displaced from Nagorno Karabakh to have as a priority plan to stay in the Republic of Armenia. We do everything to support them. In the event that there will be no de-facto desire or opportunity to return to Nagorno-Karabakh, our policy is to do everything so that they remain in the Republic of Armenia," said the Prime Minister.

The Head of the Government once again called on those forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh not to consider emigration from the Republic of Armenia as a plan for upcoming actions. "We have allocated more than 100 million USD, we will implement all kinds of projects."

The Government approved the concept of the "Academic City" project. As stated by the Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Zhanna Andreasyan, two sites are planned for the physical location of the academic city. "The area adjacent to the 17th district of the city of Yerevan, the majority of which is state or community property, and the area of the Hamo Beknazaryan "Hayfilm" movie studio, the combined area of which is about 700 hectares. At the moment, four clusters are detailed in the concept. These are the clusters for technology, craft, education and officers. The planned sites are adjacent to one interstate highway. The Academic City will also be connected to the capital by a railway, a part of which already passes through the main area. It is planned that the movement inside the Academic City will have a special regulation, organized by bicycles, electric transport and other means," said the minister. The project schedule will have three phases: a design phase starting in October 2023 and ending in September 2025, a construction phase starting in October 2025 and estimated to end in December 2029.

The Prime Minister noted. "This is one of our biggest projects, and we have to be very attentive, consistent, so that we can implement everything on time. It is really a strategic plan that will predetermine the future of the Republic of Armenia in many ways."

The Government approved the bills on Amendments and Additions to the Law "On State Property Management", on Amendments and Additions to the Law "On Public Service" and on Amendments to the Law "On State Protocol". As the Minister of Justice Grigor Minasyan noted, the package of bills regulates the legal relations of the management of gifts received by public servants and becoming state property. According to the bills, in particular, in case of receiving gifts during official visits, business trips or ceremonial gifts exceeding 60 thousand AMD, it will be possible to hand them over to museums or the national library, donate them, leave them for the temporary use of the receiving official or state body until the end of the term of office. The Prime Minister also emphasized the clarification of the regulation related to the use of gifts. "One thing we should note is that officials do not have the right to receive gifts and gifts cannot be given to officials. We have to record this finally, making it a normal daily perception of our life, because we see concrete results of consistent anti-corruption policy," said the Prime Minister.