At the end of the meeting, President Serzh Sargsyan gave relevant instructions to those present at the consultation and the relevant authorities regarding the discussed issues, problems and programs.
Although the issue of value-added tax (VAT) has been resolved, but automobile importers should be separated from people. We want this request to be reachable for all bodies, up to president, that a new status was given to automobile importers, and the money, which will be reduced from our state budget due to elimination of VAT, maybe we would compensate by working in legal field.
This doesn’t refer to the issue, that we very deeply feel worsening of EEU major actor—Russia’s economic condition via decrease of transfers and other manifestations. Truly enough, our membership to EEU more deepened economic dependency from Russia, however, Armenia would have felt those negative signals on its economy, even if not engaged with the structure.
The idea is quite simple, it’s an economic structure, and if Armenia, with its small population, thinks of enlarging its economy, major secret for success is the market. It’s clear, that there are political layers in EEU, as well as in economy. We saw what impact politics had in our relations with the Ukraine, and what’s going on in economy of the Ukraine.
Today, RA Parliament adopted a draft bill, pursuant which it’s proposed to make amendments to the Law on “Value Added Tax.” It’s offered not to charge VAT for vehicles imported by physical persons from EEU member countries.
According to some rumors, Armenia will have 10-12 banks by the end of the year. Moreover, it can’t be stated for sure, that small banks will refrain from the market. What is more, decisions on banks’ refraining may be partially considered on political dimension.
It is not news that Turkey states that Armenia needs to return the occupied territories to Azerbaijan. This is clear and is part of the Madrid Principles. Turkey wants a solution to Karabakh issue because the conflict not only represents a huge security threat for the region, but it also hobbles development and prosperity of the South Caucasus region. The question of Ankara, being part of the peace-negotiations, is not on the table, because it is clearly something that Armenia would not accept.
The Republican Party of Armenia and Armenian Revolutionary Federation signed the Agreement on Political Cooperation at the Presidential Palace 24 February 2016. On behalf of the Republican Party of Armenia it was signed by the Vice-Chair of the ARP Armen Ashotyan and on behalf of the ARF it was signed by the representative of the Supreme Body of the ARF Aghvan Vardanian.
As American revolutionary Thomas Paine said, “The Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.” It’ll be an exaggeration, if I say in Armenia we deal with the worst case. We constantly complain how bad our government is, we are often upset why the government doesn’t do this or that.
Signing of a cooperation agreement between the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) lays the foundation for future long-term cooperation, RPA Vice-Chairman Armen Ashotyan said after the signing of the agreement in the Armenian President’s residence, during the briefing with reporters.
