President invited a meeting to discuss issues related to the social and economic situation in Armavir marz and priorities of the region

Today, President Serzh Sargsyan has invited a meeting with the participation of the governor of Armavir region and officials from the regional administration to discuss the social and economic situation in the marz for the period of year 2014 and January-September of 2015, as well as to speak about current problems, priorities, and programs of development.

“Armavir marz is one of the most important strongholds of the Republic’s agricultural sector and has a number of peculiarities. One of them is the fact that gross agricultural product here is three times higher than industrial gross product, even though one of the industrial giants of the country – the Armenian Nuclear Plant is located here. We certainly must draw conclusions. The second peculiarity is the fact that despite the large-scale production, despite the existence of irrigable and fertile lands, agriculture in this region is heavily dependent on climatic conditions – late frost, lack of rain, hail, etc. This brings us to the conclusion that while paying more attention to the development of agriculture in this marz, we should strive to establish here a more protected and intensive agriculture. It means that we should encourage farmers and major farms to use nets as it is done all over the world, since it is the most reliable way to protect harvest. We should also introduce drip irrigation because regardless of the fact that in recent years we have channeled considerable resources for the improvement of the irrigation system and looked for new sources, if we mean to fully utilize our agricultural areas, we will constantly be facing the problem of water shortage. And of course, it’s a shame to waste or use inefficiently so much water. On this issue we should undoubtedly unite our efforts. We should look into the possibility of creating incentives which will make people to choose this course.

Certainly, it is easy to say that all gardens and orchards must be covered with nets, that drip irrigation system must be introduced but we should also realized that all these measures imply huge spending, which may be a very difficult task for individual farmers. A couple of years ago, at your suggestion, we started to subsidize loans, provided the farmers with more money; we restructured those loans when necessary and depending on various difficult situations. Today I still cannot say that everyone has the opportunity to take advantage of affordable loans, however situation today is different from what we had five or ten years ago.

Another factor which is significant for this marz and which I would like to mention is the presence in Armavir of our spiritual and cultural center Etchmiadzin. We should consider this factor not only from the viewpoint of education, not only from the viewpoint of using the capabilities of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin but also in its relation to tourism industry.

During our previous meetings, I stressed also the importance of developing infrastructure. Opportunities for that exist. I am aware that the administrative office of the marz is working on that, however the efforts must be doubled to solve this problem expeditiously.

I am very glad, of course, that this year we’ve had a relatively abundant harvest, but unfortunately there were certain difficulties which we were able to solve through your efforts, efforts of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Government. We still have to reckon how we are going to solve these problems next year. As you know, the bulk of these problems relates to the difficulties existing on the markets where we sell our products. I believe, on this issue too, we have to look for modern and efficient solutions.

Focusing on agriculture, I nonetheless believe that we should not center our attention on that area only, because it is also very important to create jobs for the urban population; on the other side, rural communities in Armavir are pretty big and we need to think about other activities which the people can engage themselves in. Thus, we need to direct our attention first of all towards processing industry and since the Government already has a program for this area, we can take advantage of the possibilities provided by the program to encourage people to develop processing industry. At the same time, we fully understand the desire of producers and consumers to have high quality produce, don’t we? Here too, we need to adopt practices accepted in the world – I mean, in the countries with advanced agriculture – and step by step implement them in Armenia. In this we should be able to match the international standards. Our products should be standardized and competitive. It means that there is a great necessity to create new, well-organized gardens.
There is no doubt that to be able to successfully solve the problems existing in the agriculture and industry – first of all in the processing industry- we need high quality and excellent educational and healthcare systems. Moreover so, because the number of schoolchildren in Armavir, thanks God, grows with each year; on one side it is very pleasing, on the other side it is quite compelling. We are implementing a number of programs which are aimed at the creation of a new structure and more favorable conditions,” said President Serzh Sargsyan at the beginning of the meeting.

The governor of the region Ashot Ghahramanian presented in detail completed and still ongoing works in different areas, as well as exiting problems and priorities.
Present at the meeting was also the Executive Director of the Armenian Territorial Development Fund (ATDF) Ashot Kirakossian, who reported on the investments that the Fund will make in the communities of the region.

At the conclusion of the meeting, President Serzh Sargsyan issued a number of directives aimed, in particular, at the continuous assistance to the farm enterprises which produce agricultural products and to the processing ventures. The Ministers of Economy and Agriculture were instructed to discuss with the heads of fruit, vegetable and grapes processing ventures and exporting companies possibilities of boosting exports of local produce and to present to the Government of Armenia proposals on the creation of efficient mechanisms. The RA Minister of Agriculture was instructed together with the governor of the region to discuss issues of increasing the number of fruit and berry planting stocks and their intensified cultivation and, in particular, to look into the avenues of carrying out relevant steps which will promote investment programs through the creation of new intensive gardens. At the same time, proposals should be made to render targeted consulting services to the farmers and to ensure at the same time constant improvement in the planning of the works related to the processing and export of fresh produce.

The governor Armavir marz was instructed to discuss with the Chairman of the State Water Resources Committee of the RA Ministry of Agriculture priorities for the continuous development of the region’s irrigation systems, and to present corresponding proposals for the approval of the RA government, to be later incorporated in the corresponding programs.

In order to improve the entire chain of the processing animal production and to ensure food security, the Minister of Agriculture was instructed to discuss the possibility of providing comprehensive assistance for the construction in Armavir of modern slaughterhouses in the framework of the forthcoming programs of the Ministry and to present corresponding proposals for the approval of the Government.
In order to achieve constant improvement of the mechanisms for the protection of crops from naturals calamities, the Minister of Territorial Administration and Emergency Situations was instructed to undertake measures to expand the active area of the hail protections system in Armavir marz, to improve the administrative works, and to present for the discussion at the Government of Armenia assessments related to the potential financial sources.

For the further extension of gas supply in the communities of the marz, the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources was instructed to study together with the governor of Armavir region the scale of investments required for the gasification of the communities and to present feasibility studies to the Government and Gazprom-Armenia Ltd, based on the actual number of potential users for further consideration in the framework of the priority investments.

To ensure continuous modernization of the healthcare system of the region, the Minster of Health was instructed to examine the mid-term results of the healthcare system modernization in the marz and to present concrete proposal to the Government aimed at the further improvement of the system as well as construction in Vagharshapat of a hospital and modernization of the maternity unit.

To renovate and build new educational, cultural and sport facilities and creation of infrastructure for certain vulnerable communities of Armavir, the Executive Director of the Armenian Territorial Development Fund (ATDF) Ashot Kirakossian was instructed to present feasibility studies of the programs highlighted in his report and to start the tender processes for the construction works.