Chaired by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, another consultative meeting was held in the Office of Government to discuss the anti-crisis policy aimed at mitigating the coronavirus-caused pandemic’s adverse economic impact.

Addressing the meeting, Prime Minister Pashinyan said: “We have been working in this format on a daily basis for almost a month now, and our goal from the very beginning was and remains to mitigate the economic and social consequences of the coronavirus epidemic. We had so far initiated 11 activities; another activity was approved today in the prescribed manner, and I think that the time has come to summarize the this stage to understand which of the programs proved effective, which are not so effective , and which way to amend our approaches and tactics in order to counter the crisis more effectively.”

Central Bank Chairman Arthur Javadyan presented the results of the first and second activities. He reported progress in the first event, noting that new applications were being received from economic entities.

A total of 214 loans have been disbursed to a total amount of AMD 9, 715 million, of which 828, 500 thousand went to pay wages to 2055 employees. As part of the second event, 770 loan applications were approved, of which 479 were granted to the agricultural sector in micro-loans. The amount of approved loans makes 1,844 million drams, out of which the volume of credit resources already allocated to the agricultural sector makes 346.5 million drams. The CBA Chairman mentioned that most of the already approved 479 loans had served the right purpose and were invested in the economy.

Minister of Economy Tigran Khachatryan reported on the third activity. 102 loan applications worth 947 million drams have been approved. A draft amendment to the proposed eligibility criteria is under development, which is expected to raise the amount of lending by some 700-800 million drams.

SRC Chairman David Ananyan reported that 937.3 million drams had been made available to 6149 beneficiaries in the frame of the fifth activity.

Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Zaruhi Batoyan reported on the process of implementing social assistance programs. Support was provided to 964 beneficiaries as part of the fourth activity, and to 6,723 beneficiaries within the framework of the sixth event. At the same time, the process of identifying program beneficiaries continues, and their scope may be widened.

The list of beneficiaries of the seventh program was expanded to 2,000 people, and support will be provided to 5,957 pregnant women. The seventh program has a total cost of AMD 597,700 thousand.

39 thousand assistance bids to a total budget of 2.6 billion drams have already been approved under the eighth activity; applications still keep coming in. The ninth activity has been launched; applications are being received, after which beneficiaries shall be identified and the lists will be finalized. Upon completion of these works, money will be transferred to beneficiaries within short deadlines.

The results of the 10th, 11th and 12th activities were reported afterwards. During the exchange of views that followed, the speakers stressed that the government’s efforts to neutralize the pandemic’s economic impact were effective.

Reference was next made to those measures aimed at curbing the social impact of COVID-19. Improvements in some components were discussed, which would lead to better targeting and quick-responsiveness.

The Prime Minister tasked those responsible to carry on with the monitoring process and submit daily interim reports.