Month: June 2022

 10:26,

YEREVAN, MAY 31, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan praised the successful organization of the EUBC Men’s European Boxing Championships in Yerevan.

“It sounds strange but I was very surprised to find out that never before was a European or World championship of any Olympic sports organized in Armenia during the years of independence. This isn’t good, and we hope to host such championships more frequently in the future. The last major championship before this boxing championship was the chess Olympiad, which took place either in 1995 or 1996 if I am not mistaken,” Pashinyan said during parliamentary committee debates on the 2021 state budget performance.

Pashinyan congratulated Team Armenia for the medals won at the EUBC Men’s European Boxing Championship.

The Armenian PM added that next year Armenia will host the European Weightlifting Championship. He said that this championship will also be organized on the highest level.

 10:36,

YEREVAN, MAY 31, ARMENPRESS. According to the data obtained from the educational facilities of Armenia, the respective department of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport has mapped and summarized the data on foreign and Diaspora-Armenian students studying in Armenia’s educational institutions according to universities and countries.

Accordingly, the number of foreign students studying in the international universities in Armenia is 354 in the 2021-2022 academic year, and the number of Diaspora-Armenians studying in secondary vocational educational facilities is 471.

In the current academic year 3760 foreigners and 4248 Diaspora-Armenians study in Armenia’s educational institutions.

 10:56,

YEREVAN, MAY 31, ARMENPRESS. Artsakh, its existence is a highly important factor of maintaining regional and even global geopolitical balance, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Artsakh Davit Babayan said in a statement published on social media.

Babayan said that if Artsakh were not to exist the geopolitical landscape would fundamentally change in South Caucasus, and then also in adjacent regions, after which maintaining geopolitical balance with traditional means (geostrategic balance system and others) would become practically impossible.

“This would lead to an open, hard and direct collision of centers of power. And what can happen when maintaining geopolitical balance with traditional means is impossible, and when global and regional powers would overtly oppose each other? I think the answer is very clear: the world could even appear on the verge of nuclear warfare,” Babayan warned.

 11:11,

YEREVAN, MAY 31, ARMENPRESS. The government has returned 146 billion drams of value added tax (VAT) to economic entities in 2021, compared to the 60 billion drams in 2017, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said while presenting the 2021 state budget performance report at the joint session of parliamentary standing committees.

“We had an unprecedented taxes-GDP figure, when we registered the 22.7% of the GDP in the form of tax revenues. In the medium-run we have a task to raise this figure to 25%. Of course, this will not be easy, also in the background of reducing the tax provisions, but we have put this task and must try to solve it”, the PM said.

As for the 146 billion drams returned in VAT to businesses, the PM said that in case of export VAT is returned to economic entities.

“Debit funds emerge in the domestic turnover due to the peculiarities of VAT. And in 2021 we returned 146 billion drams to the economic entities. In 2017 the VAT return comprised 60 billion drams, we increased the VAT return by 140% compared to 2017”, the PM added.

As of January 1, 2018, the government owned a VAT debit of 125 billion drams to businesses. “When the new Tax Code was adopted in 2017, the government said they put aside the previous debts and will not address it. In 2019, when we were already overfilling the budget revenues, we decided to return the overdue VAT debits existing since the first days of independence. In other words, this was, in fact, a hopeless debt which we returned to economic entities”, he said.

He said they couldn’t not do it, but they considered the state’s reputation as the most important factor. He said that the government planned that time to return 56 billion drams in debt, but actually it returned 42 billion drams because many companies have been dissolved. Pashinyan said that there is practically no problem in Armenia that has existed for 30 years. And if there is a VAT debit debt, it means the economic entity has not yet managed to apply to get it within a month.

 11:29,

YEREVAN, MAY 31, ARMENPRESS. The revenue section of the 2021 government budget was outperformed by 147 billion drams, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told lawmakers during debates of the 2021 budget’s performance report.

He reminded that in 2021 economic growth comprised 5,3% whereas preliminary projections were 3,1%.

“I’d also like to remind the year of 2021, in what situations we appeared, and in this context it is important to underscore that we have outperformed the revenue part with 147 billion drams."

He said that one of the reasons of having collected more revenue than projected are legislative changes, such as the copper concentrate export duty, which alone brought 24 billion drams in revenue to the budget.

 11:57,

YEREVAN, MAY 31, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan accused the opposition in coordinating their actions with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev.

Simonyan said the opposition’s conduct is in line with Aliyev’s actions.

“It is obvious that these actions are carried out jointly. At least it is obvious for me,” Simonyan said. 

Both opposition factions of the Armenian parliament are holding demonstrations in Yerevan for already a month demanding the resignation of PM Nikol Pashinyan. 

Speaking on the upcoming June 3 extraordinary session of parliament that is to be convened at the initiative of the opposition, Simonyan said convening the session is the opposition’s attempt to find a way out of the current situation.

“The fact that Ishkhan Saghatelyan is voicing some timeframes, saying that days are left, hours are left, don’t they understand that with their words they are entering a deadlock and are now facing a deadlock? And now they are trying to find some way out of the deadlock, but every time I look at their marches, protests and speeches I get astonished how one can fall into the cycles of mistakes of 20-30 years and repeat it all the time. I wish them good luck, they need it,” Simonyan said.

Simonyan said the June 3 emergency session of parliament is a fake process by which the opposition tries to save its face because they had announced that they are taking to the streets and won’t return.

The June 3 emergency session of parliament will be convened at the initiative of the opposition, which seeks to adopt a resolution on Artsakh. However, the ruling Civil Contract party announced that it won’t participate in the session. If Civil Contract doesn’t take part, there will be no quorum and the session won’t be convened.

The opposition’s draft resolution of parliament states, among others, that “Armenia will support the full exercise of the right to self-determination of the people of Artsakh, Artsakh will never be part of Azerbaijan, there must be reliable land connection between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh: Artsakh will not be an exclave, the delimitation and demarcation must be carried out with the precondition of Azerbaijan withdrawing its troops from sovereign Armenian territory, Armenia is the guarantor of security and the right to self-determination of the people of Artsakh, the breach of the territorial integrity of Armenia is ruled out as a result of delimitation and demarcation, any agreement in the Armenian-Turkish normalization process that would question the Armenian Genocide is ruled out, and that the unblocking of roads with Azerbaijan and Turkey cannot happen in the logic of a corridor.”

 12:20,

YEREVAN, MAY 31, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said his administration projected under the state budget to collect 715 billion drams in tax revenue in the first 5 months of 2022, but the figure will be outperformed by an additional 45 billion drams.

 12:27,

YEREVAN, MAY 31, ARMENPRESS. Assistance provided by Armenia to Artsakh in 2021 grew 122% or by 70 billion drams, while the budget of Artsakh overall grew 48% or by 45 billion drams, PM Nikol Pashinyan told lawmakers.

“Since November 2020, we implemented 136 billion drams of projects in Artsakh. 120 billion drams was provided during 2021 for programs related to Artsakh,” Pashinyan said.

The money allocated by Armenia was used to pay the utility bills of residents in Artsakh, as well as the salary of the entire public administration employees.

“In 2019 the budget of Artsakh was 117,9 billion drams, from which 57,8 billion drams was paid from Armenia. In 2021 the Artsakh budget’s revenue part was 174 billion drams, from which 128 billion was paid from Armenia,” Pashinyan said.

Artsakh never had a bigger budget than now, Pashinyan said.

“And Armenia has never before given so much assistance to Artsakh.”

“73% of the Artsakh budget in 2021 was paid by the Government of Armenia,” Pashinyan said.

Pashinyan said the assistance is continuous and in 2022 it is planned to pay 144 billion drams to Artsakh.

 12:31,

YEREVAN, MAY 31, ARMENPRESS. Orion Summit 2022 is already open for registration. As of today, the participants of the technology summit can register using the innovative technology by filling in their email addresses and doing a face scan. 

The application was created by Orion’s Summit Partner Scylla, a world-leading company developing real-time physical threat detection solutions. On account of Scylla’s “Face as a Ticket” app (Android, iOS), the participants will have a private biometrics pass. 

The technology summit has already launched its official website, where information about  participants, agenda, and partners is available. Registration is available on the mobile version of the website. By clicking the "Register" button applicants will get further instructions. During the event, the camera installed at the entrance will recognize the face of the participants and allow them to enter without a paper ticket or an e-ticket.

Orion Summit’s Partner Scylla has an impressive client portfolio with Daimler, Chicago Cubs, Major League Baseball, and Oman International Airport.

Orion Summit 2022 will take place on June 22, 2022, in Yerevan, Matenadaran. The event will bring together world-class founders, investors, advisors, and professionals in technology, finance, business, and other fields. You can also follow the Orion Summit 2022 news on Facebook and LinkedIn.

About Orion

Orion Worldwide Innovations (“Orion”), is a startup growth and ecosystem acceleration hub and offers a full-service package to make companies investable to enter the US market, enhance their customer acquisition strategies, stay competitive and protect their innovation. Orion is a U.S.-based company formed in 2017, with offices in New York City, U.S., and Yerevan, Armenia, though Orion partners with companies and investor networks worldwide.

 13:02,

YEREVAN, MAY 31, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan highlights the political determination of the ruling political force in the introduction of the system of universal income declaration of individuals.

“I want to highlight also our political determination that we must introduce a universal declaration system. In other words, all citizens of Armenia must declare their incomes, which will enter into force from 2024 for the incomes of 2023”, the PM said during the joint session of parliamentary standing committees dedicated to the debate of the 2021 state budget performance report.

According to Pashinyan, this has a very important economic, political and civilizational significance.