Any problems with previous investments in public administration

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan participated in the 3rd Public Sector Innovation Forum, which was organized by the Sustainable Development Goals Innovation Center of Armenia of the United Nations Development Program.

Members of the Government, diplomats, representatives of international organizations, local and international experts, representatives of civil society, leaders of innovation and technology were also present at the event.

Before the start of the event, Nikol Pashinyan familiarized himself with the solutions of the technological sphere of the public administration field equipped with artificial intelligence at the COPA booth. It was presented that ParlOur is an open source tool developed by COPA, collecting on one platform the speeches of RA National Assembly deputies, legislative initiatives, committee meetings, votes and other parliamentary content. It allows citizens to understand which MP expressed what position, what initiatives he took and how he voted on various issues through a thematic search. The tool was created to make parliamentary processes more transparent, accessible and analyzable. It is aimed at strengthening the informed participation of citizens and informed public control over political decisions.

Before the award ceremony, the Prime Minister made a speech, welcomed everyone to the third Public Sector Innovation Conference and noted: “First of all, I think it makes sense to record that the quality of work in the public sector very directly means the quality of public life. Perhaps the impression is that this interdependence is not always and not everywhere perceived. in order for us to make the life of the public better, we have to make the management of the public sector better, and in order to make the management of the public sector better, in general, there is a tool to make something better – it is additional investments in that sector.”

According to Nikol Pashinyan, in reality there is another problem of improving the public sphere: the public sphere is somewhat demonized at least on a subconscious and emotional level. “This is related to our historical experience, because what has our several hundred years of historical experience shown? we are dealing with a public sphere that is repressive, destructive, inhibiting, and disruptive. Such has been our historical experience for the past 500 years, with some exceptions. This perception persists in our reality, while the reality is that the public sphere is the rail on which the train of our public life runs. We can make the biggest possible investments on the train, gild the seats and carriages of that train, but if proper investments are not made on the rails, that train will either simply not move or will crash very often, which in our reality, let’s admit, happens very often,” said the head of the country.

According to the Prime Minister, it is important to record that no citizen of the Republic of Armenia has and cannot have as much influence on his personal well-being as the sphere of public administration has on that citizen’s well-being. And therefore, changing the public attitude towards the sphere of public administration is one of the most important things to do. “I want to emphasize once again that no, absolutely no, family in the Republic of Armenia spends on its own well-being and cannot spend as much as the state budget and community budget of the Republic of Armenia spends on the well-being of that same family. It is excluded, there is no such unique example in the Republic of Armenia. In the Republic, we don’t have a single family, a single individual who spends more for his personal well-being than the state budget of the Republic of Armenia spends for that same person’s personal well-being. Every dram of tax paid by every citizen of the Republic of Armenia is returned ten times more to that citizen. Moreover, this is an exact formula. if a citizen pays 1 dram, he gets 10 drams back, if a citizen pays 10 drams, he gets 100 drams back, if a citizen pays 100 drams, he gets 1000 drams back,” Nikol Pashinyan emphasized.

Referring to the innovation of the public sector, the Prime Minister noted that innovation is education, because without education it is not possible to innovate. According to the head of the country, this is the reason why the Government’s policy for at least the last 1-1.5 years is aimed at making large investments in the field of public administration, introducing self-employed education systems. “We make sure that education in the public sector becomes a motivation, and as a result of education, new motivations for work and innovation, new knowledge are acquired. Today, we have a situation where thousands of civil servants are focusing on their education thanks to these investments and the program. After work, they participate in various educational programs and trainings to improve their qualifications and the quality of their work. It is done, first of all, to improve the lives of citizens of the Republic of Armenia and people living in Armenia. Any problems and any unsolved problems that we see today are the result of our previous investments in the field of public administration.

Summarizing the speech, Nikol Pashinyan thanked the organizers of the forum and all the public sector workers who are engaged in their education, continuous improvement of their professional level, promote so that the public sector workers have additional motivation to increase their professional level. “Thank you to those who turn what they know into a public product by innovating in the public sphere.”

Next, the award ceremony took place. The four award categories are: “Innovation Driven by Digital Solutions”, “Innovation Driven by Technology Solutions”, “People-Centred Innovation”, and “Innovation in Management”. The purpose of the Public Sector Innovators Awards is to highlight innovation, recognize and value those people and teams that, through their daily work, improve the quality of public policies and services, as well as strengthen Armenia’s commitment to modern, mission-oriented and people-centered governance.

Nikol Pashinyan handed over the prizes to the winners in the above categories. Thus, in the category “Innovation stimulated by digital solutions” the winners were Anna Harutyunyan, advisor to the minister coordinating the digitization of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Arpine Sargsyan, the minister of internal affairs, “Innovation stimulated by technological solutions” – the head of the subsoil control department of the Environmental Protection and Subsoil Inspection Vahan Grigoryan and the head of the Environmental Protection and Subsoil Inspection Body Hovhannes Martirosyan, in the nomination “Human-centered innovation” – Education, Science, Culture and National Educational Technology under the Ministry of Sports Raisa Avetyan, head of the distance learning organization department of the center, and Zhanna Andreasyan, Minister of Education and Culture, in the “Management Innovation” nomination: Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Arayik Yesayan, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Arsen Torosyan.

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