PM says capacities of construction companies in Armenia do not meet the benchmarks set by government

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 20, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan says the capacities of construction companies in Armenia obviously are not enough for fulfilling the capital expenditures financed by the government.

During the Cabinet meeting today, the PM said that there are no state construction companies in Armenia for already decades. “Of course, private companies have opened in Armenia in recent years, but we state that the capacities of construction companies do not meet the benchmarks set by the government. We draw the attention of private investors that there is a field here where they can invest and get profits”, the PM said, stating that problems are regularly emerging in the field of capital program implementation.

“Constructions are not always done on time and at a proper quality, and now we see that the underperformance of capital expenditures is also connected with it, but this doesn’t mean that we should move this to the field of private responsibility. We also need to take actions here, particularly, the constant reforms in procurement legislation”, the PM stated.

Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan added that due to this problem, the companies under the economy modernization program are being encouraged.

“The construction field is also among these sectors where, if the companies purchase new equipment, the government subsidizes most of the interest costs, and we already see that more than 320 companies have already used this program and there are also construction companies among them. I call on the companies to enhance their potential by using the strong exchange rate of the dram”, Kerobyan said.