Today, the regular Cabinet meeting was held, chaired by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan.

The Government has approved the procedure for providing scholarships to promote the education of employees of commercial organizations who are residents in the Republic of Armenia at prestigious foreign higher educational institutions. Under the terms of the decision, investments in human capital and the necessary development of human potential will also be ensured through cooperation between employers, and the state-private sector. Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Zhanna Andreasyan noted that it is planned to apply a new state support approach in the process of strengthening the innovative potential of enterprises and provide an opportunity to co-finance the tuition fees for employees of commercial organizations who are resident in the Republic of Armenia and who will study at prestigious universities abroad.

The main condition of the program is that the private sector must also participate in co-financing, that is, a commercial organization that must have at least 100 employees, shall co-finance the scholarship by at least 50 percent, after which it is planned that the state will provide a scholarship of a maximum of 10 million AMD each year. An important condition is that after completing the studies, the citizen must work in the relevant specialty in the co-financing organization for at least 3 years. An exchange of ideas was held on the topic, a number of observations and recommendations were presented. The Prime Minister, in particular, proposed to establish a mandatory condition in the program that the beneficiary should have worked in the given company for at least 2 years. "That is, we must make sure that the beneficiary is an employee of that sector, this will solve many issues." It was also proposed to implement strict monitoring by the end of the year.

The Government made amendments and additions to the decision “On forming a professional commission to qualify scientific research and experimental development works as such, establishing the procedure and composition of the commission, the procedure for qualifying scientific research and experimental development works as such by the commission, and establishing the criteria for scientific research and experimental development.” As noted by Minister of High-Tech Industry Mkhitar Hayrapetyan, this new 7-year program provides for 2 main general tools. “The first is support programs․ Here the Government has taken 3 main directions for 7 years. In particular, those companies where labor migrants will be involved or will be involved since March 1, 2022, will receive support in the amount of 60 percent of the income tax for each of them. Companies will again receive support in the amount of 60 percent of the income tax for employees entering the new labor market. Here, we have mainly targeted the entry of young talents and personnel graduating from universities, we also establish this support measure for the entry into labor market of re-specialized personel. And the third direction: for employees trained through professional training educational programs, companies will again receive income tax support in the amount of 50 percent," the Minister said.