A regular Cabinet meeting took place today, chaired by Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan.

The Government made amendments to one of the previous decisions aimed at introducing a new system of interstate and republican highway management. One of the goals of the decision is to establish additional requirements for road-maintenance equipment, to envisage new regulations to improve traffic safety, to clarify the regulations related to the service procedure, as well as to define a formula for calculating the cost of works that will be carried out under the 5-year road maintenance contract to be signed in 2022.

According to the Government's decision, 532,121.5 thousand AMD will be allocated to the Governorates of Aragatsotn, Ararat, Armavir, Gegharkunik, Kotayk, Lori, Shirak, Vayots Dzor and Tavush Provinces to provide subsidies other than those already provided by the state budget. According to the Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of Armenia Gnel Sanosyan, the decision is about 27 programs received from 24 communities. The total amount is 1 billion and 6 million AMD, of which 532 million AMD will be allocated from the state budget. Nikol Pashinyan emphasized the importance of implementing subsidy programs and particularly noted, “In 2018, we made a political decision that subsidy programs should become a key tool for our balanced territorial development. During the period of 2018-2020, 1193 programs were implemented in all regions within the framework of subvention programs. The total investment is more than 47 billion AMD”. It was also mentioned that in 2021, 678 programs worth 48,400,000,000 AMD are currently underway. Summing up, Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that according to the results of 2021, it can be said that there is not a single settlement, a community in the Republic of Armenia where very tangible, visible, significant capital investment has not been made. Prime Minister Pashinyan also noted that the Government should never reject subsidy programs that have good content. "And we will continue to move forward in this way so that balanced territorial development becomes a reality."

The Government approved the proposal to sign an agreement between the Republic of Armenia and the European Union on Armenia's participation in the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Framework Programme. According to the substantiation, the negotiations on the draft agreement started on June 25, 2021 and ended on September 16. As a result of the negotiations, the final text of the agreement was agreed, taking into account the proposals and observations received from the interested departments of the Republic of Armenia and a verbal agreement was reached to start ensuring the procedures for signing the draft agreement under the legislations of the Republic of Armenia and the European Union.

According to the Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of Armenia Vahram Dumanyan, Armenia's participation in the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Framework Programme will enable scientists and groups to become direct participants in world-class research. "At the same time, Armenian scientists will be given the opportunity to use the advanced infrastructure of the participating countries. The program also provides assistance opportunities for high-tech startups and SMEs. Participation in the program will ensure the continuity of the process of integration of the scientific system of the Republic of Armenia into the European research area," the Minister said.

Nikol Pashinyan attached importance to the adopted decision, noting that the development of science has been and continues to be on the Government's list of priorities. "I want to remind that according to the draft state budget of the Republic of Armenia for 2022, it is planned to increase the funding of science by 83%. The amount to be allocated for scientific thematic research will be increased more than 2.5 times, amounting to about 6.7 billion AMD. In 2019-2020, we made unprecedented achievements in acquirement of scientific equipment," the Prime Minister said.