A meeting was held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan with the participation of the Cabinet members.

The Prime Minister thanked those present for properly implementing the work of the executive body during his absence, as well as the state and local self-government bodies involved in organizing the parliamentary elections for ensuring the successful course of the parliamentary elections.

Referring to the cases of vote rigging and the use of fraud mechanisms, the Prime MInister thanked law enforcement agencies for combating voter bribery and illegal pressure on the free expression of will of voters. “This also shows the effectiveness of institutional reforms in our country, because we have implemented a number of legislative and institutional reforms that have yielded results,” said Nikol Pashinyan.

At the same time, the Prime Minister expressed concern that an atmosphere of tolerance has been formed regarding electoral bribes. According to the Prime Minister, this practice must be radically changed and mechanisms must be developed to form an atmosphere of intolerance towards electoral bribes. “This is a matter of the country’s security and the security of democracy. First of all, our state must be the object of our care, our people and their free will and the opportunity to express their free will.”

Nikol Pashinyan also touched upon the upcoming activities of the Government and emphasized that it is necessary to work actively, summarize what has been done in the previous period and plan future activities before the formation of the new parliament. The Prime Minister emphasized, in particular, the importance of ensuring the continuity of road construction and the “300 Schools, 500 Kindergartens” program. In this context, Nikol Pashinyan drew special attention to the implementation of promises made to children regarding schools, sports schools, art schools, and playgrounds.

Nikol Pashinyan singled out the implementation of the TRIPP project among the upcoming projects and noted that the ratification procedure for the agreement signed between Armenia and the United States on the project should be ensured as soon as possible. Reference was also made, in particular, to the announced tender for the restoration and design of the Akhurik-Gyumri railway section, reservoir projects, the renovation of the railway station in the Yeraskh section, the North-South construction, the construction of the Kajaran tunnel to be launched in the near future, which will be followed by the construction of the Bargushat tunnel, on which an agreement has been reached with French partners.

“I have no concerns about our financial capabilities, because in the near future there will clearly and undoubtedly be great investment activity in Armenia. The TRIPP project is a billion-dollar project, which will also bring an influx of new billions. We should be more confident here. Moreover, what our experience of the previous period has shown is that money is not the most important thing, content is the most important thing. When we know what we are doing, why we are doing it, that is, the content we need is determined, the issue of money can always be resolved," the Prime Minister said.

The next direction, according to the Prime Minister, is to make a decision on 3 priority issues in each settlement. Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that it is important for heads of administrative districts to discuss this issue with residents. The Prime Minister informed that for this purpose, during the summer, he plans to hold working discussions in all regions with the participation of members of the Government, regional governors, and heads of communities related to the topics. “We now need to determine together, as a result of these consultations, the three priority issues of each settlement that we need to solve in the near future, including through the mechanism of subvention programs and so on,” said Nikol Pashinyan and happily added that this year almost all communities have presented as many subvention programs as they have implemented over the previous 8 years.

The Prime Minister once again emphasized the importance of requiring cash register receipts by citizens in order to implement all these planned programs. “We must also conduct a certain policy with this, and our residents, citizens must understand the essence of this cycle, how the state functions. In other words, taxes are generated, it comes to the budget, it goes back from the budget, it becomes roads, lighting, schools, kindergartens."

The Prime Minister also touched upon the improvement of the business environment, the planned reforms in the microbusiness sector and, in particular, emphasized: “We are creating a very large preferential field, but we must also create mechanisms so that this preferential field is not abused, because our experience shows that usually preferential fields are abused, and we deviate from our goal in reality - we want to help, support small businesses, but it turns out that some people simply abuse that privilege.”

The Prime Minister considered the regulation of the water sector in the republic to be one of the priorities for the next 5 years and in this context emphasized the importance of joint work with the “Veolia Water” company and determining investment directions.

Nikol Pashinyan also touched upon the introduction of a new solid waste management system, the topic of energy transformation, which concerns new forms of energy generation and use, collection of state budget revenues, etc.

The Prime Minister gave specific instructions on the presented sectoral issues and emphasized the importance of developing a plan for future actions in all directions and setting clear deadlines.