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

The Government adopted a decision, by which it is planned to define the specifics of the organization of purchase processes for the construction (reconstruction) of schools and educational complexes with the state budget funding within the framework of the program of ensuring access to quality educational services in Armenia.

Commenting on the decision, Nikol Pashinyan noted. "Having examined the field, we come to the following conclusion that in the conditions of economic activity, the attractiveness of the school construction is sometimes not high enough compared to the general construction field. And if we formulate the meaning and purpose of this decision very briefly, then we have a task to make school construction a little more profitable for construction companies."

The Government approved the bills "On Amendments and Additions to the Law on Roads" and "On Amendments to the Law on State Duty". The draft law regulates the provisions defined by the requirements of the aforementioned directives related to the safety of EU road infrastructures, as well as the processes of setting the norms authorizing the law provided by the relevant instruction of the Prime Minister. The law will clarify the permitting norms for the adoption of legal acts, and will establish provisions related to road infrastructure safety management, impact assessment, road safety audits and the relationship provided for by the minimum safety requirements for road tunnels. The requirements for the construction of highways passing through the borders of populated areas and defense zones will be clarified. As a result of the adoption of the bill "On Amendments to the Law on State Duty", participants will be charged 20 times and 10 times the statutory basic fee for passing the Road Safety Auditor and Tunnel Safety Specialist qualification examination and issuing a certificate of qualification, respectively.

Touching on the road safety audit, Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that he raised a question that not only should a road safety audit be carried out, but also a road quality audit should be carried out.

The Executive made a decision to add another component to the "Technological modernization in strategic and priority areas and optimization of business processes" program, which will contribute to the digitization of companies. Accordingly, a subsidized loan for consulting is provided first, so that companies can obtain quality consulting during the digitization process. Second, digitization investments are subsidized for the digitization process itself. Thirdly, in case of success, when companies register 2 results at once, that is, they introduce quality management and digitization standards and obtain these standards, as well as record results in terms of export diversification, then half of the loan of the amount provided for consulting will be transferred back in the form of a grant.

The number of jobs in Armenia in December 2023 was 741 thousand 726, which, compared to May 2018, is more by 193 thousand 737, Nikol Pashinyan announced at today's Cabinet meeting. In other words, since May 2018, 193 thousand 737 jobs have been opened in Armenia. The average monthly salary (ie, per employee) in December 2023 was AMD 356,180, which, compared to December 2018, is more by 133,399 AMD or 59.9%, and compared to December 2022 is more by 25 thousand 273 AMD or 7.6%.