YEREVAN, MARCH 26, ARMENPRESS. Armenia recorded a major progress in international reports in various areas, in particular high level of democracy, improvement in economic freedom index, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said live on Facebook, introducing the results.

“The Varieties of Democracy has published the 2020 Democracy Report which says that despite the serious growth in global authoritarianism, Armenia has recorded high democratization figures in 2019. The report says “in Armenia, pro-democracy activists can now similarly harvest the fruits of their peaceful protests in celebrating that a democratically elected government has been in power for a full year in 2019””, the PM said.

In Electoral Democracy Index, Armenia has improved its positions by 82 points, is ranked 35th compared to the past 117th. In Liberal Component Index, Armenia is ranked 61th compared to the previous 125th. In the Egalitarian Component, Armenia is ranked 40th against the 63rd of the past. In Participatory Component Index, the country is 52nd against the 105th of the past, and in the Deliberative Component Index, it is ranked 31st compared to the previous 113th. The report viewed to what extent government’s actions meet the public interest and also how much the government respects the counter-facts and listens to them, as well as assessed to what extent the public is participatory.

The report also contains charts indicating maximum and minimum lines. Pashinyan said here Armenia in terms of the Women’s political participation component has already crossed the maximum line, which means that women have a very serious political participation.

“Sponsorship has approached the minimum line, this means that we will soon cross the minimum line, as for the corruption level of the executive, we are also approaching the minimum line”, he said.

The next report is the 2020 Index of Economic Freedom. Pashinyan here highlighted the fact that this year Armenia has changed its status in the Economic Freedom Index. If previously the country was Moderately Free, this year it is Mostly Free. The country has captured the 34th place, compared to the 47th place in 2019. According to the report, Armenia recorded success in 8 indicators – property rights, efficiency of judiciary, government integrity, tax burden, government spending, fiscal health, etc. “In the Europe region our country is 18th from 45th. Armenia’s overall rating of 2019 is higher from average both in Europe and the world. The report says “to attract greater investment and finally break out of its holding pattern to move higher into the mostly free category, Armenia will need to focus more intently on improving judicial effectiveness and government integrity””, the PM said, adding that this means that the government’s political direction in terms of improving the international and economic situation, is also in accordance with the expert trend, in other words, they need to seriously deal with the issue of the judiciary.

The report also says that “courts in the country suffer from low levels of efficiency, independence, and professionalism, and strengthening the judiciary needs to be a priority”. PM Pashinyan added that after the current economic crisis the government as well must make serious economic changes, attract foreign investments. He said each foreign investor firstly gets acquainted with these international reports to know what country he is dealing with.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan