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

The Government approved the 2022-2024 state support program for ensuring housing affordability to families in the border settlements of the Republic of Armenia. According to the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Narek Mkrtchyan, in case of building a private house with a mortgage loan, the amount of support is for monthly repayment of the mortgage loan principal, a total of up to 12 million AMD, but not more than 171 thousand AMD per month, and for interest rate repayment - up to 12%, up to 8.660 million AMD, but not more than 120 thousand AMD per month. About 137.7 million AMD will be required to provide assistance to 240 families within the framework of the program in 2022. Beneficiaries can be spouses registered in the state population register of the Republic of Armenia, at least one of whom must be a citizen of Armenia. There is no age limit, there is no precondition for having a child, the main target of the program are newly created families, who will be able to build their own house with state support.

Referring to the program, Nikol Pashinyan noted that in case anyone receives a mortgage loan from a bank to build a house in a border area, he will receive a 12% subsidy of the 12 million AMD from that state. "The logic is that the military will be those to build the apartments in the border areas, because the residents of many border areas are the military," the Prime Minister said.

The Government approved the draft laws of the Republic of Armenia on amendments to the “Law on Defense” and related laws. According to it, it is envisaged to rewrite the powers of the Government of the Republic of Armenia in the field of defense, to define the powers in them separately, to increase the scope of acts adopted by the Security Council, include the economic activities, a number of basic plans and programs regulating the field of mobilization preperation and mobilization of the Armed Forces and other troops of the Republic of Armenia in one general Defense Plan of the Republic of Armenia. The scope of powers of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia, the General Staff of the Armed Forces and the Minister of Defense and the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces are clarified and rewritted, the post of Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces is envisaged as the First Deputy Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia. Referring to the bills, Nikol Pashinyan pointed out two important key provisions, “The first is that the Chief of General Staff becomes the First Deputy Minister of Defense. Second, the entire procurement system is implemented by the Ministry of Defense. In other words, the General Staff is not engaged in procurement, the General Staff is engaged exclusively in its functions, I mean in the functions intended for the Armed Forces”.

The Government also approved the draft law "On Making Amendments to the Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Armenia." According to the amendment proposed by the draft, the citizenship of the Republic of Armenia can be granted to persons who have provided exceptional services to the Republic of Armenia, as well as to persons with significant contributions in the fields of economy, science, education, culture, healthcare, sports. The criteria for exceptional service and significant contribution in the fields of economy, science, education, culture, healthcare, sports are defined by the decision of the Government of the Republic of Armenia.

According to the Government decision, it’s planned to alienate through a tender the state-owned 9905.21 sq.m. of buildings and an area of 3.302955 hectares allocated to them for their use and maintenance and 0.000436 hectare of jointly owned land plots located in Yerevan, Arabkir district, Orbeli street, 23. Accordingly, it is proposed to alienate the lands owned by shared ownership through a tender at the rate of 80% of the assessed value - 6,613,652,800 AMD. The decision stipulates that the sale price of the property can be paid by the buyers at once, as well as during 5 years, which will create an opportunity to involve a wider circle of participants in the alienation of the property.

The Government also made amendments to one of the previous decisions to organize the procurement of grape, fruits and vegetables for the current year. The proposed amendments provide, in particular, for each loan borrower engaged in processing activities to provide budgetary guarantees for the direction of grape procurement (purchases) with a maximum repayment period of up to two years and three months. Apart from grapes, budgetary guarantees will be provided to each borrower for the purchase of other agricultural raw materials with a maximum repayment period of up to one year and three months. The total amount of budgetary guarantees provided to each beneficiary and companies affiliated with him may not exceed 4.0 billion AMD.