YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. Caretaker Prime Minster Nikol Pashinyan says he sees a need to change the structure of the country’s economy and notes that currently an economic revitalization process is underway.

Asked during a press briefing today why his government was unable to maintain the previous indicator of economic activity, Pashinyan stressed that the previous economic activity index was composed from bookmaking bets, which in turn has taken a significant part of the people under debt and interest rates, the Amulsar project, and the Teghut mine.

“This means it turns out that with the fate of a single organization we are having economic growth. You know well what happened to Teghut. The mine was shut down even before the revolution. Today, a recovery process is taking place in the country’s economy. Meaning we are transitioning from a bookmaking economy into an industrial economy. I am very happy that a great commotion took place online when a textile investor was saying that he is very displeased with the government’s activities. Indeed, that man was very correct, we should assist this kind of investors maximally. But we won’t let for us to have an economy with painted numbers,” he said.

He added that the government will fight against the “bookmaking pandemic”. “We believe that this is a process impacting the content of our country. During the [march] people were mainly saying this, that it is a disaster, not only bookmakers, but also the gambling machines at gas stations. We must reject the old economic structure and create a new economic structure,” he said.

He noted that soon the Sevan Sugar Factory is expected to be re-launched, stressing that 7 months ago no one could’ve imagined something like this. He said that soon a household equipment factory is planned to be opened too.

He also addressed the North-South Road Corridor, mentioning that active construction is underway, but at the same time he said that problems relating to quality of the previously constructed parts exist, which has been proven by expertise.

Pashinyan also noted that since the government began tackling the black market of petrol, filling stations owned by well-known individuals began reporting double the amount of consumption, meaning previously they’ve been evading taxes.

He said that agriculture, mining and bookmaking were the pillars of the Armenian economy. “We don’t need this economy, we aren’t solving any issues with this, with this kind of an economy we’ve reached a crisis,” he said.

“We are planning to make Armenia an industrial, technological, exporting country, a country that is exporting not raw materials, but finished goods,” he said.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan