Pashinyan: government will work to improve efficiency of execution of 350 billion drams worth capital expenditure
YEREVAN, April 13. /ARKA/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told parliament members today that his government will work to improve the efficiency of execution of 350 billion drams worth capital expenditure, earmarked for 2022, a 60% rise as opposed to 2021.
"We have made a political decision not to reduce CapEx no matter what kind of economic development scenario we will have," the prime minister said, adding that many of the government-funded projects are implemented with the participation of the private sector.
He said the government will work to organize transparent tenders and to have these projects fulfilled with high quality.
"Increasing capital expenditures and improving their efficiency is one of the most important socio-economic tasks because by doing so, the government helps create new jobs and raise salaries," the prime minister said, when presenting a report on his government's performance in 2021.
He said all the planned CapEx was executed in 2021. As a result, in December 2021, there were 659,471 officially registered jobs, the highest ever number.
"Compared to the same month in 2020, the number of new job was up 6.1%, compared to the same month in 2019 – up 4.9%, and to 2018 – up 12.1%," he said.
According to Pashinyan, the most important achievement of 2021, which has institutional value, was ensuring macroeconomic stability in a difficult post-war period, intensified by domestic political and security crises, uncertainty and panic.
According to him, under these conditions the government managed to sell $700 million worth Eurobonds at the lowest ever rate.
The Prime Minister noted also that in 2021 Fitch and Moody's rating agencies once again affirmed Armenia's rating with stable outlook, assessing the level of creditworthiness as reliable and noting the government's ability to manage the existing risks.
"S&P for the first time assigned Armenia a rating with a positive outlook, justifying it by the government's ability to conduct a reasonable and reliable macroeconomic policy," Pashinyan recalled.
"As a result, tax revenues in 2021 exceeded the planned figure by 147 billion drams," he said. ($1 - 473.13 drams). --0--
