Mher Grigoryan – Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia, gave an interview to ARMENPRESS, talking about the aforementioned and other topics.
-Mr. Grigoryan, recently you were in the United States within the framework of the 2019 spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank Group. What key agreements were reached based on the discussions?
-When I was in Washington D.C., our joint program to be implemented with the IMF was at the discussion stage, and we were making clarifications. On May 17 the IMF approved the program according to which it will provide a 36-month Stand-By type of loans, worth 248.2 million USD, to Armenia. This gives an opportunity to receive loans at any moment in case of macroshocks without additional procedures. The loan resources will be provided as a preventive measure and will not be used unless there are shocks which can create problems with the balance of payments. This program becomes an important public document for all relating to our country’s macro-stability. We also had discussions with the World Bank, and as the World Bank Group’s 2019-2022 Armenia Partnership Framework document was approved on March 28, the discussions were held on the implementation processes of programs. In order to promote the Armenian government’s goal aimed at eliminating extreme poverty and promoting general prosperity, it is expected to assist Armenia in three main areas – promotion of the factors contributing to export and the competitiveness of companies, improvement of the human capital and equality and stable management of environment and natural resources. On the sidelines of the spring meetings we also met with a number of partners and representatives of partner organizations in the US and exchanged views on expanding and deepening the cooperation with Armenia. This is a platform where it is possible to talk about deepening and expanding the relations and also to understand what is happening in the world, as well as to get acquainted with the best practice.
-Recently the session of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council was held in Yerevan during and also after which Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan considered the formation of single market of oil, oil products and energy efficient a priority. Given the fact that this meeting was preceded by the meeting of the deputy PMs, could you say, please, is there any agreement on these matters and what will you highlight from the meetings of PMs?
-Since the first day of Armenia’s assuming chairmanship at the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) the priority was given to making actions and efforts aimed at forming a stable market of energy resources. I think this is very important for the EAEU’s development and future, and also from our participation perspective. If we do not have a single price for energy resources in the EAEU space, there will be many problems with competitiveness, and thus in terms of the production capacities the country, that has low energy resource, will be dominant in terms of the low price. Official records regarding this were made in different documents and agreements were reached in particular in strategic documents. According to the 2018 December 6 decision of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, the programs on forming EAEU single gas market and single market of oil and oil products have been approved. The formation of the EAEU single gas market will create a base for t...
