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

The Government adopted a decision based on the introduction of procedures for the provision of prosthetic and rehabilitative equipment for persons with disabilities and persons of other social status on the basis of state certifications. As a result, all necessary items will be provided to people with disabilities and other social status based on state certificates, as a result of which this process will become more targeted and effective.

The Executive adopted a relevant decision, which stems from the logic of the ongoing healthcare reform. As a result of the proposed changes, welfare packages will be purchased for 15,000 healthcare system employees and free medical assistance will be provided to the aforementioned individuals on State-guaranteed preferential terms.

Highlighting the above decisions, Nikol Pashinyan said that decisions to improve the quality of life in Armenia should be the subject of daily discussion for the government.

“The discussion of these issues was specific because we took concrete decisions, after which we can state that there will be a concrete change in the lives of thousands of citizens of the Republic of Armenia and they will feel the change in their quality of life. This is to be a key guideline for the government. I made such a recommendation during a discussion held earlier today with the Chief of Staff. I told him to forward it to the members of our government so that every day we might face questions, the first point of which should be the passing of such decisions that would lead to specific changes in the lives of our people,” Nikol Pashinyan said.

According to the Acting Prime Minister, the government should develop and adopt such decisions as would bring about small, medium and large-scale improvements in the lives of a specific number of people, as well as qualitative changes in their daily lives.

“This should be seen as our government’s number one task: it has to become our main directive,” Nikol Pashinyan said.

In order to provide subventions other than those envisaged in the 2018 State Budget, co-funded resources will be made available to regional administrations for implementing infrastructure and socioeconomic development programs in individual communities, including the improvement of streets, parks, the construction and renovation of community buildings, cultural houses, kindergartens, ceremonial rooms, construction and renovation of sewage and irrigation systems and municipal lighting systems.

Nikol Pashinyan emphasized the importance of quality control for the implementation of programs. “It is especially important when it comes to roads. If we spend money, repair the road, which will not serve as much as it is intended for technical tasks, it means that we will never solve our problem of road network. In other words, if we spend money considering that a road should be used for 10 years, but instead it serves only 5 or 7 years, that means we will always face road problems. Here, the highest standards must be respected without any compromise. We all understand that roads are the best place to apply the well-known vicious mechanisms. Therefore, we must simply eradicate them as this is an issue of strategic importance,” Nikol Pashinyan said.

The Acting Prime Minister emphasized that all instances of financial abuse should be reported to the police so that they could be properly examined, and relevant sanctions might be applied.