PRIME MINISTER’S VOCIFEROUS STATEMENTS
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan held a press conference at the end
of the year. Editors of the mass media were invited but not all the
editors showed up. Besides, a big number of interns attended the press
conference, both on the side of the government and the mass media.
They had been invited by the government to improve their professional
skills through following the press conference.
The press conference was almost a marathon, in the spirit of Putin’s
press conferences and close to Putin’s time – four hours – though
part of it was spent on finishing technical preparations.
In terms of content, the picture of the press conference was relative,
and it would be possible to fit the interesting statements within a
shorter period.
There were some interesting statements indeed. In particular, Tigran
Sargsyan announced that in Armenia the economy was a balloon before the
crisis. This is the first such evaluation uttered by Tigran Sargsyan
who was the president of the Central Bank then. According to him,
“the economic balloon blasted” because the other spheres were not
competitive due to speculative processes in the sphere of building.
The reason of decline of direct foreign investments was decline of
speculative building sphere. Tigran Sargsyan said annually over 700
million to one billion dollars were invested in private building
before the crisis, which is a huge number that stimulates growth,
and when it is removed, decline is inevitable.
Tigran Sargsyan’s next sensational statement was the offshore scandal.
The prime minister was asked, “The press has recently reported
the activities of a Diaspora Armenian lady involved in an offshore
scandal. Nairi Mehredge is a relative of Member of Parliament Vartan
Oskanian of Prosperous Armenia Party, she set up a company called
“Assembly of Mice” in Cyprus in which she involved dead people.” The
query was made by haynews.am.
Tigran Sargsyan said he could not imagine this press conference without
a question regarding the offshore. He announced that he is interested
in disclosing the question fully. The prime minister repeated that
he has nothing to do with the offshore accounts. “The same lady who
registered an enterprise in Cyprus under my name has registered an
enterprise in Cyprus, a company under the name of dead people. I wonder
what explanations Mr. Oskanian will give, whether this is unexpected
information for him or his person is standing behind this and this
scandal has a political context,” Tigran Sargsyan said.
He called the reporters to investigate this case and find out the
truth.
Tigran Sargsyan’s next vociferous statement concerned the fight
against oligopolies. Sargsyan announced that the government’s program
for five years will succeed if competitiveness is provided in Armenia.
Without such a result the program of the government will fail, the
prime minister said.
According to him, after the economic decline following the collapse
of the Soviet Union some spheres appeared in the hands of a group
of people. On the one hand, the legislation must be made more rigid
for these people, and on the other hand, favorable climate must be
created for SMEs. Tigran Sargsyan said Armenia will have no future
without a middle class which is the basis for the civil society.
In answer to the question whether the anti-monopolistic and
anti-oligopolistic policy is effective, Tigran Sargsyan said
the reporters should assess judging by the state of things. As an
indicator, Tigran Sargsyan suggested the mass media which, according
to him, are sponsored by oligarchs. Provided that the mass media
“attack the prime minister, the government for every issue, we are on
the right way and we must finish with those issues”. And if there is
peace, no attacks, then unfortunately we are doing something wrong,
he said, advising to judge the effectiveness of oligopolies and
monopolies by these facts.
21:55 27/12/2013 Story from Lragir.am News:
From: Baghdasarian