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

The Government approved the 23rd and 24th anti-crisis programs to mitigate the adverse economic impact of COVID-19. The 23rd program is meant to help save jobs through continued activities amid the global pandemic for those economic entities engaged in tourism-associated sectors.

The program provides for a monthly grant available to those legal or self-employed entities not registered as micro-enterprises in the territory of the Republic of Armenia that were established before March 31, 2020. The beneficiary should have employed at least 3 people during the month of support. The program will be effective in the period from July, 2020 through March, 2021.

The 24th anti-crisis program seeks to mitigate the sales-related risks in grape processing entities and improve the terms and conditions for attracting extra funds for the procurement of grapes to ensure smooth implementation of the procurement process. Accordingly, it is proposed to amend the terms of state leasing programs for subsidizing the interest rates of loans provided to the agro-processing sector for the purpose of procurement (purchase) of agricultural raw materials, financial lease of agro-food equipment in the Republic of Armenia.

As a result, major companies engaged in the procurement of grapes will be able to raise the necessary funds, lease raw materials and storage containers, organize the process of procurement and pay the cost of the crop purchased from farmers, as well as to reduce the cost-price and boost the output.

Evoking the previously adopted 22 anti-crisis programs, the Prime Minister noted: “A total of 144.5 billion drams had been made available to beneficiaries as of yesterday,, of which AMD 26.2 billion was spent on social programs and nearly 17.5 billion drams – on economic measures. AMD 19.9 billion was provided in soft loans. In other words, we gave the money to the banks so that they could lend it on better terms to agriculture, businesses and other entities.

We have also supported the economy indirectly by subsidizing several other programs, including educational ones. Owing to these incentives offered by the government as part of remedial action, banks have provided around 92.8 billion drams in loans to businesses. In fact, a total of 144.5 billion drams was injected into the economy during this crisis period, which is quite a tangible amount under Armenian standards.”

The Government adopted a decision on “Donating the residential areas (apartments) allocated to the RA Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs as a social housing estate.” The decision comes to complete the housing program for orphanage graduates by privatizing their living space or apartment. The decision provides that the housing or apartments currently occupied by 163 families that were recognized as beneficiaries under the program implemented in 2003-2015 shall be offered to orphanage graduates, while 3 graduates will be granted housing purchase certificates, considering that the premises they used to live in were assessed as decrepit as early as in 2003-2004, i.e. before the signing of relevant contracts.

Nikol Pashinyan highlighted the right of orphanage graduates to get quality education. “Two days ago we just discussed what kind of specific measures we should take. We should not seek to provide housing for orphanage graduates, instead our task is to give them such strong educational skills as would help them buy an apartment after receiving rent compensation for a couple of years.” the Prime Minister said.