YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 4, ARMENPRESS. The Cabinet approved the Economic Response Program and the Preliminary Action Plan defining the government’s priority anti-crisis steps, goals and circle of actions.

Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan said that the COVID-19 pandemic and the second Nagorno Karabakh War in 2020 were a “source of economic shock” for the country, besides having posed serious public health and security challenges.

“Official figures are already published, according to which the 2020 economic decline is assessed in the framework of 7-8%. Other main economic indicators also displayed negative dynamics. As a result of several economic actions taken by the government last year, it was possible to somewhat suppress the risk of having a greater decline,” he said.

The program emphasizes three main priorities: restoration of economic activity, ensuring a reliable business and consumer environment and the development of a mid-term economic policy agenda.

12 targeted actions and 14 assistance programs are envisaged by the program.

Targeted programs include boosting agriculture and urban development, for example the development of the 33-rd district of Yerevan, the Kond district, Old Yerevan and others.

Avinyan said the aid programs include several actions for overcoming the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“And a big segment comprises the new program, which plans to support our adopted policy whereby it won’t be possible to import some types of cargo from Turkey any longer,” he said, referring to the Armenian government’s ban on imports of Turkish goods. “And we are going to encourage the productions of such goods in Armenia. A requirement for high performance is defined for capital programs. A special monitoring and accountability mechanism is also in place,” Avinyan said.

He added that the general goal of the program is to have a 1% additional growth of GDP than projected by the budget.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan