Author: Emma Jilavian

 13:18,

YEREVAN, MARCH 21, ARMENPRESS. More than 3000 Iranian tourists are expected to arrive in Armenia by air to celebrate their New Year – Nowruz, President of the Armenian Tourism Federation Mekhak Apresyan said at a press conference in ARMENPRESS, adding that several flights have already been carried out.

30 flights are planned to the direction of Iran before the early April, he said.

“Of course, these days we are expecting more visits also by land, and these are hotel reservations, there is an activeness in travel agencies. Therefore, we must do everything to uninterruptedly ensure the land communication”, Mekhak Apresyan said.

As for the statistical data about the tourism flows from Iran to Armenia, Mr. Apresyan said the visits in 2021 have been a lot. Iran’s share in Armenia’s tourism visits comprised nearly 11%. The annual figure has been nearly 95,000, of which more than 9000 visited during Nowruz.

Mekhak Apresyan said the activities in the direction of Iran must be active, contributing to the increase of tourism flows from that country.

 11:15,

YEREVAN, MARCH 18, ARMENPRESS. 52 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Armenia in the past one day, the ministry of healthcare reported.

The total number of confirmed cases in the country has reached 422,254.

The COVID-19 recoveries rose by 149 in a day, bringing the total to 409,196.

The death toll has risen to 8592 (3 death cases in past day).

2396 COVID-19 tests were conducted on March 17. 

The number of active cases is 2822.

 14:48,

YEREVAN, MARCH 14, ARMENPRESS. Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan met today with the European Union’s Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the Crisis in Georgia Toivo Klaar, the Office of the Secretary of the Security Council said in a press release.

The sides discussed the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the steps being taken to raise the level of security and stability on the border. In this context the necessity of launching the demarcation and delimitation process of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border was emphasized.

Armen Grigoryan presented both the humanitarian crisis and security situation in Nagorno Karabakh. The sides highlighted the importance of the comprehensive and lasting settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict under the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship.

 10:03, 1 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 1, ARMENPRESS. 17,7% more taxes were paid in Armenia in this year’s nearly 50 days compared to the previous year’s same period, Minister of Finance Tigran Khachatryan said in an interview with ARMENPRESS, when asked whether or not the government could revise the projected 7% economic growth and what actions the government must take to guarantee this figure.

Khachatryan said they’ve tried to understand whether or not they are now in a reliable interval against the projected figures of tax revenues.

“We recorded that 17,7% more taxes were paid this year compared to the previous year. And this is in line with the annual growth indicators which we have for 2022. Why is the government bringing forward the economic growth indicator in discussions with the public, for several reasons. Because first of all economic growth shows the result created by our population and the increase of revenues at the expense of it,” he said.

According to Minister Khachatryan, this 7% new economic value is created especially in the private sector thanks to the efforts of active companies who are producing goods, exporting or rendering services.

“The second question is what the government must do to guarantee or contribute to this 7% economic growth. The government is one of the major actors in the economy. We make more than 2 trillion in spending annually, most of which are spending of social significance, some are salary expenses, and some part are procurement of products and services. And all this together contribute to economic activity,” Khachatryan said.

Speaking about the kind of services which create new value in the economy, for example the construction of roads, reservoirs or implementation of economic projects aimed at the rapid development of individual sectors of agriculture, Khachatryan attached importance of how swiftly the government is making this procurement, how accurately the participants are explained with the intentions, how effectively it is cooperating with the participating or winning organization of the procurement in order to implement the work in time and in full scale.

“In all these issues our organizational actions with the private sector are directly contributing for the work to start and end within the timeframes. For example, we have planned for 2022 to make 60% more capital spending than it was planned for 2021, and in its value it is the size exceeding 350 billion drams: nearly 4,5% of the GDP. Compared to the previous year, these are very significant positive changes. And we must be able to organize it in a way so that we remain within the boundaries of what was planned in terms of time. And it is also this way that we should contribute for economic growth to be in the size that was planned. And I think that making decisions and following their implementation in a timely manner in all these issues is the action which the government must do, but of course not limiting to only this,” he said.

Asked if the government will achieve the 7% economic growth, the Finance Minister said they’ve numerously noted that they aren’t simply predictors. “The government doesn’t only project, but also has assumed obligations to fulfill it. And we not only project this, but we have the toolbox with which we are doing everything for this to happen,” he said.

However, the Finance Minister doesn’t rule out that the projected growth could not happen due to factors which don’t depend on the government.