Pashinyan announces Armenia's 'new phase'

Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan started today’s Cabinet meeting of the government with an important message. He said that the republic's new Cabinet underwent a period of adaptation, so a new phase is beginning.

The Armenian PM announced a start of extensive economic reforms, expressing hope that they will be smooth. "We have to carry out extensive reforms, but they should not be hasty, rash," Pashinyan said, adding that it will e started from changes to the Tax Code.

“We need to record our methodology for reforms - considering the political realities existing in Armenia,” he stressed, in particular. “Our reform algorithm shall be extensive discourse with the public, confirmation of an agreement toward this or that reform.”

Earlier, Pashinyan said that the economic revival of Armenia does not necessary requires unblocking borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey, since the Iranian and Georgian borders would be enough.

Economist Vahe Davtyan, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, stressed that the range of Armenian economic problems that can be solved without unblocking the Turkish and Azerbaijani borders is very narrow. "We have closed borders and are forced to develop in these conditions. According to calculations, Armenia suffers serious economic losses due to the semi-blockade. It is predicted that the opening of borders can lead to the GDP growth of 30%. But there are no real grounds to say that the borders can be opened. So our government is forced to approach the issue of economic reforms from such a pragmatic position that the semi-blockade of Armenia will continue," he said in the first place.

Without opening borders, Armenia is primarily limited in its transport and communication capabilities. "We have an annual turnover of $200-300 million with Turkey, but we do it mainly through the territory of Georgia, which affects the prices. Unblocking the borders will allow establishing direct economic cooperation between countries and lowering the transport component in the final cost of transported goods. And of course, transport, logistics and energy projects on the territory of the South Caucasus traditionally bypass the Republic of Armenia because of the semi-blockade. Unfortunately, today we live in conditions, when the political interest, which is baseless in essence, is facing a pragmatic interest," Vahe Davtian stressed.