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

The Government approved the draft law "On Amendments and Additions to the Law on Government Structure and Activities" and related draft laws. According to the substantiation, in order to ensure the most effective implementation of the functions of the state administration system of the Republic of Armenia, as well as to provide solutions to the problems defined by the Strategy, it is proposed to form a state administration body that develops and implements the state policy in the field of internal affairs, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, within the system of state administration bodies of Armenia. The Ministry of Emergency Situations will cease its activities according to the transition schedule. According to the draft laws, the Police, the Migration and Citizenship Service, and the Rescue Service will be subordinate bodies of the Ministry.

The Government will allocate 1,933,373.9 thousand AMD through redistribution to improve the building conditions and equipment of a number of schools. Money will be allocated for improving the building conditions of 96 schools, 15 of which are in Aragatsotn Province, 7 in Ararat Province, 13 in Armavir Province, 6 in Gegharkunik Province, 17 in Lori Province, 6 in Kotayk Province, 21 in Shirak Province and 11 in Tavush Province. The funding is allocated for partial renovation of schools. Nikol Pashinyan highlighted the decision to make strategic investments in the field of public education and preschool and once again urged that the construction works should be carried out with the new standard.

The Government approved the draft law “On ratifying the loan agreement No. CAM 1016 01 between the Republic of Armenia and the French Development Agency signed on November 17, 2022”. According to the substantiation, the €100 million provided for by the agreement will be allocatedin two stages. The budgetary support funds will be directed to the financing of the deficit defined by the Law of the Republic of Armenia on Sate Budget 2022. The scope of the project, in particular, includes: fiscal planning, transparency, risk management, etc. The loan will be granted for 20 years, of which 5 years will be a grace period. As the Minister of Finance Tigran Khachatryan noted, during this year special cooperation took place with the French Development Agency.

"We have received considerable professional and expert support in many directions, especially regarding financial management. They help us to refine our expected activities related to our upcoming reforms in the areas of fiscal planning, transparency, risk management, public procurement system, government debt management,. And I want to mention one particular point. taking into account the increasing scope of cooperation, the French Development Agency has decided to open a permanent representatation in Yerevan," the Minister said.

Tigran Khachatryan also referred to another decision approved by the package of non-reportable issues "The draft law on ratifying the loan agreement "Fiscal stability and financial markets development program" signed between the Republic of Armenia and the Asian Development Bank on November 17, 2022". The 100 million US dollars provided for by the loan agreement will also be directed to the financing of the deficit defined by the Law on State Budget 2022.

Referring to the decisions on ratifying the agreements, Nikol Pashinyan noted: "I think this is a very important expression of our deepening relations with France, and I also want to thank the French government and President Macron for this support in connection with this agreement and decisions. I hope and am convinced that we will maintain this dynamic of relations between Armenia and France. At least, there is this will at the level of the leaders of both countries. The next loan program is also very important. The Asian Development Bank is one of our very important partners."

At today's Cabinet meeting,the Prime Minister referred to the works planned within the framework of the "Armenian Crossroads" project. "Of course, my experience in this field has shown that we should be very careful with optimistic news, but I can say that if what we learned and agreed upon yesterday, if nothing deviates from its logic, in the near future in the sidelines of "Armenian Crossroads" project, we may have the need to make a major investment in the field of rehabilitation of railways."

The Prime Minister noted that it is about the Horadiz-Meghri-Ordubat-Sadarak-Yeraskh railway. "We are happy that we have that opportunity. It is a project to which, I am sure, all partners will show great interest. It is about that during the negotiations with the President of the Russian Federation yesterday, we received certain signals or information, which means that there may be a significant and serious opportunity for us to come back again and start the railway restoration work. It is about the Horadiz-Meghri-Ordubat-Sadarak-Yeraskh railway. I say again, taking into account the previous bitter experience, now I just want to share the information, and say that everything still needs to be reconfirmed and recorded. But the good thing is that we will not have a problem of financial resources."

The Head of the Government also referred to the session of the Collective Security Council held yesterday in Yerevan and noted. "As a result, unfortunately, we did not manage to come to a common denominator regarding two very important documents. I also want to say that in my opinion, a very open, honest and positive discussion took place, and those two documents were sent for revision. I hope we will be able work it out and come to a common denominator. In general, despite this fact, the declaration of the Collective Security Council was not adopted, that is, we did not sign the declaration and the decision on the CSTO response to the escalation of September 13 was not adopted, again because we did not sign it. But I want to say again that in general, I consider the discussion positive, I also consider the negotiations with the Russian Federation in a bilateral format positive. I hope that we will implement the agreements that were reached as soon as possible."