A Cabinet meeting was held today, chaired by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Before discussing the agenda, the Premier touched upon the recent incident in Panik community of Shirak Marz. “This is inadmissible. I consider it a provocation against the Armenian-Russian relations and a provocation against the sovereignty of the Republic of Armenia. I think the perpetrators must be held accountable. Of course, we still need to see what procedures should be implemented in order to investigate the incident as we have to clarify the relationships stemming from international treaties and Armenian legislation. I am aware that the police are preparing the relevant materials,” the Prime Minister said and expressed the hope that the further course would be effective.

Nikol Pashinyan next touched upon the unfinished, incomplete credit programs. “During the previous discussions, I found out that there are several incomplete credit programs in Armenia. Some of them have not even kicked off, while others have been left unfinished due to third parties’ failure to fulfill their contractual obligations. Nevertheless, Armenia is still making payments under such credit programs. I think this situation should be deeply understood and discussed,” Nikol Pashinyan said and instructed the ministers concerned to identify and submit a finalized list of such programs to the Office of Prime Minister.

The Government approved the State Leasing Support Program for the financial lease of agricultural equipment in Armenia, which has a primary objective to provide farming tools to agricultural producers on affordable terms, including equipment available through the scheme of financial lease.

The program stipulates that agribusinesses will get up to 230.0 million drams under leasing facilities, with a maturity of up to 8 years and 11% annual interest rate, up to 7% of which shall be subsidized so that the lessee should only have to pay 4% annually. The leaseholder is supposed to make a 20% advance payment for the purchase price of the facility leased.