`First page of unread book’ was passed
27-12-2007 12:59:22 – KarabakhOpen
Yesterday the National Assembly passed the budget bill on second
reading. After the minister of finance Spartak Tevosyan presented the
bill, the parliament factions read their conclusions.
The conclusion of the Democratic faction, which was presented by the
leader of the faction Vahram Atanesyan, was substantial and conceptual.
Along the positive and progressive points Vahram Atanesyan drew
attention to a number of drawbacks and imperfections of the budget
bill. The leader of the faction said hopefully their proposals will be
taken into consideration next year, therefore they decided to vote for
the bill. He mentioned that there were greater expectations from the
government, which had pledged economic reforms, but the faction
understands that the government did not have enough time to present
separate programs, and the budget addresses the most urgent issues.
With regard to boosting of funds for social programs and public
administration Vahram Atanesyan said the target groups of entitlement
programs must be more distinct. The Democratic faction hopes that the
government will focus on increase of employment in the private sector
to balance public jobs. Vahram Atanesyan said the country needs to rise
to a level of economic self-sufficiency to protect our political
achievements from the impact of negative changes in the external
environment, and meet the challenges of regional economic competition,
which is not addressed sufficiently by the budget bill 2008, although
the government program marked it as a priority. He also underlined that
the budget bill should have assigned more importance to the middle
class as a key factor for political and economic development.
The conclusion of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun-Movement 88 faction was
positive. The leader of the faction Armen Sargsyan emphasized that the
bill reflects the strategic and tactical goals, in addition, the
proposals of the faction had been adopted. Armen Sargsyan said the
faction votes for the bill and underlined that if the faction voted
against the previous budget bills, something was wrong with the bills,
whereas the stance of the faction is the same.
The leader of the Hayrenik faction Arthur Tovmasyan compared this
budget with the previous budget and discovered progress toward social
and economic development. `When Ara Harutiunyan was appointed prime
minister, many said he is an unread book. Now we are reading the first
page of this book, which is very nice,’ Arthur Tovmasyan started his
figurative speech.
The budget bill 2008 was adopted almost unanimously ` with only one
nay.