The first Cabinet meeting of 2024 took place today, chaired by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Before discussing the issues on the agenda, the Prime Minister once again congratulated everyone on the New Year and the coming Christmas. "I wish everyone success in our work, the essence of which is the implementation of our plans and strategies."

The Government defined the amount and procedure of providing monthly bonus for the scientific degree to the scientific employees involved in the basic programs of budgetary financing of scientific and scientific and technical activities and working at least for the normal duration of working hours. Accordingly, it is proposed to allocate an additional payment for a scientific degree to scientific employees involved in the basic programs of budgetary financing of scientific and scientific and technical activities and working at least for the normal duration of working hours, maintaining the currently established amount of additional payment for a scientific degree: 50,000 AMD for a doctor of sciences, 25,000 AMD for a candidate of sciences. Adoption of the decision will change the personnel structure of the scientific potential and contribute to the strengthening of personnel in the field of science, a steady increase in the number of highly qualified personnel in the field of science and technology, and the effective targeted reproduction of scientific potential, will provide an additional incentive for choosing scientific work as the main job, and will increase the efficiency of the use of funds allocated from the state budget.

Referring to the proposed change, Nikol Pashinyan reminded that the salary of scientific workers in Armenia has been increased for the third time in a row. The process is not over yet, and a salary increase is also planned from January 1, 2025.

The Government adopted a decision proposing that from January 1, 2024 to provide a personal assistant service to people with disabilities. Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Narek Mkrtchyan reminded that a pilot program of personal assistant service was implemented in 2023. Accordingly, some changes are suggested for the effective implementation of the project. The goal of implementing the program is to support a person with a disability to live independently, to be included in his community. The decision expands the target group needing personal assistant service, and the service will be provided to persons with mobility, vision and mental health problems with a deep or severe degree of limitation of functionality. "A person with a disability can present his preferred candidate as a personal assistant, and if he does not have such a candidate, he makes the choice from among the trained candidates available on the online platform of personal assistants registered in the Unified Social Service," the minister said, adding that there are currently 57 trained persons. According to the minister, the amount for 1 hour of service is 1050 AMD, including taxes.

Responding, Nikol Pashinyan proposed to further expand the program and consider a family member living under the same roof with the person with a disability as a candidate for a personal assistant. The Prime Minister emphasized that in that case, it is necessary to set a mandatory condition to be trained and acquire the appropriate care skills.

At today's Cabinet meeting, Nikol Pashinyan referred to the program for the construction of kindergartens and schools and noted that he gave an instruction to the deputy prime minister to conduct an inventory and audit based on the results of this moment. The Prime Minister noted that during his visits to the regions, he discovered serious problems regarding the implementation of the government projects. He emphasized that governors are responsible for all programs, regardless of who is the client, who is the executor, and noted that he will not tolerate such a situation. Nikol Pashinyan stated that he no longer needs explanations about the problems, instead, solutions are needed. "I need solutions to problems. Please don't give me any explanation why things are like this. You should come and say that this issue is solved, and don't explain how. It is important to me that the problem is resolved. We no longer need officials who raise issues, we need officials who solve issues."

The Prime Minister also noted that such an attitude is also psychologically important. "This is a very serious, deep problem, and it does not refer to specific programs. This refers to the psychology with which we relate to our state. It is an attitude towards the state. We are also giving our children an attitude towards our country."

By the decisions made under the package of non-reportable issues, Armen Ghularyan was released from the position of the chairman of the Urban Development Committee, Aram Khachatryan from the position of the governor of Lori.