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

The Government approved the measure to provide state support to ensure the stable production activities of fish farms in the Ararat and Armavir regions of the Republic of Armenia in 2026. The need to adopt the decision is conditioned by the urgent need to ensure the financial and production stability of industrial fish farms operating in the Ararat and Armavir regions of the Republic of Armenia. As a result of the recent difficulties, sales problems and shortage of working capital in the export sector of fish and fish products, economic operators have encountered obstacles to ensuring the continuity of production, which may lead to a reduction in production volumes, a decrease in export potential, job cuts and a weakening of the competitiveness of the sector.

During the Cabinet meeting, the Prime Minister referred to the economic activity indicators published by the Statistical Committee earlier this week. “We must happily record that in June 2026, compared to June 2025, the economic activity indicator increased by 7.7 percent. In other words, we have a fairly good economic activity indicator. Of course, construction and services continue to be the leaders, and industry is also in a fairly good condition. We have better indicators for the period of January-June: the economic activity indicator is 7.9 percent, industry growth is 10.8 percent, construction growth is 24 percent, service growth is 11 percent. The activity indicator has increased. Of course, we have certain problems in the agricultural sector, but I want to remind you that for a long time in agriculture, without these current problems, we had certain downwards processes, and all of that was, first of all, related to agricultural technologies, which we were talking about a little while ago. But economic activity is quite good in the Republic of Armenia. It should also be noted that we are in a record-high indicators for tourism and there is a high probability, taking into account the upcoming COP17 conference, that tourism indicators in 2026 will be the absolute maximum in the history of Armenia."

Nikol Pashinyan also referred to the publication of the decision on the sovereign rating of the Republic of Armenia by the Moody's rating agency on July 28, 2026. "The outlook for Armenia's sovereign rating has been revised from stable to positive, and the long-term sovereign rating has been reaffirmed at the "Ba3" level. "Moody's" attributes the change in the rating outlook to the following main factors: a decrease in geopolitical and political risks due to the reduced likelihood of a large-scale military conflict with Azerbaijan, the process of normalizing relations with Türkiye, diversification of external partners and domestic political stability, improved prospects for medium-term economic growth, 5-5.5 percent economic growth is expected in 2026-2027, which will be conditioned by the stability of domestic demand, growth in investments, continuous development of the service sector and expansion of public spending, strengthening of the structural potential of the economy due to increased investments, especially in the technological and infrastructure sectors, continued diversification of the economy and prospects for increasing productivity," the Prime Minister quated Moody's rating.

The Government made a decision due to the need to ensure the normal course of a number of other programs. Within the framework of the "Rehabilitation of Irrigation Systems" program, it is planned to finance the construction of the Vedi reservoir and irrigation system within the framework of the "Construction of the Vedi Reservoir and Irrigation System with the Support of the Government of the French Republic" measure. In 2026, work continued on the software adjustment of the reservoir's SCADA system and control and measuring equipment, as well as testing the valves with water under conditions of free flow of water in the rivers. As a result, the contractual terms of the contractor and the construction supervision consultant were extended. The final completion of the works is planned in September of this year, after which the contractor is expected to be paid a part of the retained security deposit, the amount to be paid after the completion process. At the same time, in the current year, it is necessary to make the corresponding payments for the services provided by the construction technical supervision consultant in 2025, but submitted and documented at the beginning of 2026, as well as for the services provided in 2026. Taking into account the above, it is necessary to provide additional budgetary funding of 650,352.0 thousand drams for this measure through appropriate reallocations in the 2026 state budget of the Republic of Armenia.

The Prime Minister emphasized: "The construction of the Vedi reservoir has been completed, on the occasion of which I want to congratulate all of us, since we are implementing an engineering water infrastructure project of this scale for the first time in the history of the Third Republic. It should be noted that when we say that the construction of the reservoir is completed, we need to clarify the concepts." Nikol Pashinyan noted that water filling works are now underway, and water filling is taking place with daily engineering maintenance. The Prime Minister also noted that a visit to the Vedi reservoir took place and a consultation was held, the conclusion of which is that the structure is impressive, it was built with the latest technology and is unique in Armenia.

The Government decision provides for the provision of compensation for individual products exported from the territory of the Republic of Armenia within the framework of the measure to support the export of individual greenhouse products in August. In addition, in order to ensure competitiveness in export markets for products compensated within the framework of the measure, the list of products provided with compensation in August was supplemented with Palermo pepper and eggplant at the suggestion of economic operators. From June 1 to July 23, 2026, about 1,526 tons of pepper, 770 tons of tomatoes, 213.4 tons of strawberries, about 5.8 million pieces and 58 tons of flowers were exported, of which about 742 tons of pepper, 562 tons of tomatoes, 104.4 tons of strawberries, about 2.3 million pieces and 23 tons of flowers were exported as of July 23. From June 1 to July 23, the geography of exports has expanded, flowers were exported to 26 countries, fruits to 19, and vegetables to 8. According to the substantiation, taking into account that active negotiations have been carried out by economic operators to export to other markets, as a result of which an increase in export volumes is expected in the near future, and during the negotiations, price offers are made taking into account the amount of compensation provided, it is considered appropriate to provide compensation for August as well. The analysis of export dynamics shows that in August 2026 the projected export volumes within the framework of the event during August will amount to about 150 tons of strawberries, about 4,100 tons of vegetables and about 5.2 million flowers.

The Government has made a decision to ensure equal competitive conditions for entrepreneurs importing tomato paste and producing tomato paste from local raw materials, as well as to regulate the process of tomato procurement.

The decision proposes to impose a ban on the import of products classified under the EAEU Commodity nomenclature of foreign economic activity 2002 90 code (tomato paste) into the territory of the Republic of Armenia (including transportation from the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union) for a period of 6 months. If the decision is adopted, the sales volumes of locally produced tomato paste will increase, the demand for tomatoes will increase, as a result of which the procurement of the tomato crop will be ensured in full.