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

Before discussing the issues on the agenda, the Prime Minister, on behalf of the government and the people, expressed condolences to the relatives and family members of the victims of the flood that occurred on May 25 in Lori and Tavush regions.

Next, the Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures, Gnel Sanosyan, reported on the damages caused by the flood and the works carried out by the operational headquarters. The Minister noted that the assessment of needs and supplies are of a continuous nature, the infrastructures are being improved. "The disaster is of a huge scale and all departments need to be involved. On the other hand, we need to develop programs, those can be supportive, encouraging, privileges, credit histories. Quite a lot of businessmen have been affected, it is necessary to understand how to carry out compensation and by what methods. Also, there are various urban planning, environmental and other issues that, as a result of this disaster, will bring forward a need for holding discussions, taking decisions and, I think, making legal changes."

Nikol Pashinyan informed that Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan had discussions with Russian partners in Moscow yesterday, particularly with the partners of "Russian Railways" company. "The Russian partners have assured that the railway will be restored as soon as possible, which I think is very important."

The Head of the Government also referred to the issue of the construction of bridges and roads and noted. "We need to revisit road and bridge construction standards. The first is the standards and the second is the question of quality, so that we understand whether we are doing the right maintenance of roads, bridges, and what we should mean by saying a bridge." Nikol Pashinyan noted that they received messages of readiness to provide support from international partners. "I think, especially in the field of bridge construction, we should ask our partners to provide concrete support."

Reacting, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ararat Mirzoyan noted that there are a number of international mechanisms that can be activated in such circumstances, and there are specific international partners who have expressed their willingness to support in this or that issue, and there are partners who are willing to help us in the construction of modular, temporary bridges. "We are now at the following stage. we need to clarify as quickly as possible what exactly we expect from international partners, and here we rely heavily on the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure. Whenever we have a final understanding, we can apply for concrete assistance," said the minister.

The Prime Minister noted that if a specific proposal for support is made, emphasis should be placed on the construction of bridges. "There are modular short-term solutions, but also with the logic of capital investment, we should build bridges in accordance with the standards."

The Government established the procedure for issuing a law-abiding taxpayer certificate for a person carrying out foreign economic activity. Accordingly, it is planned to establish standards of being low abiding for persons carrying out foreign economic activities and regulations for issuing a law-abiding taxpayer certificate to persons based on those standards. As a result, simplified procedures for customs operations will be provided for persons who meet the relevant standards, reducing the time and financial costs of businessmen, and it will create an opportunity for customs authorities to direct customs control measures to the most risky areas, increasing the effectiveness of customs control.