Remarks by RA and RPA President Serzh Sargsyan at RPA Council Session

Good afternoon,

Some time ago, the Executive Body of our party unanimously resolved upon my recommendation to put forward the Vice President of the Republican Party of Armenia Hovik Abrahamyan’s candidature for the position of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia.

During these days, I met and talked to lots of persons, held private conversations with each member of the Executive Body, spoke to numerous members of the Council, talked and listened to lots of our supporters, and naturally, took into account many persons’ opinions and expectations and combined them, of course met and talked to the representatives of other political forces and today I will tell you the following:

1. Given his past career, his role assumed at the Republican Party of Armenia, his experience and organizational capacities, Hovik Abrahamyan is certainly able to lead the RA Government at a highest level.

2. Over the last days, we had a long conversation with Mr. Abrahamyan on our present and future objectives. I honestly presented all the skeptical opinions existing even among our teammates related to inter-team integrity, as well as to our relations with other political forces and possible perceptions of different social layers. Mr. Abrahamyan assured that he would deal with all the issues we sincerely spoke about. Mr. Abrahamyan promised to take decisive steps and to make clear political statements in order to deal with all our concerns, to initiate raising the team spirit and uniting everybody in working, and more importantly, to achieve tangible results. I am confident that everybody will soon realize that the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia is effective. I have no doubt about it and will personally do my best to support Mr. Abrahamyan to make it a reality as soon as possible.

3. We also made arrangements for a number of working priorities and styles. I shall enumerate some them:

1) The Government’s works will be organized through presenting the results achieved and making progress based on those results and not through reproaching the previous Government;

2) The Government will give a new impulse to the works of joining the Customs Union and will successfully finish this vital objective by taking active measures;

3) The reforms being implemented will continue to be effectively carried out, including the introduction of the compulsory accumulative pension system, the continuation of the educational reforms, the continuation of improving the work organization at the tax and customs duty systems, by this I refer to the documentation of circulations, the compulsory labeling, the limitation of cash circulation and finishing the introduction of cash registers in all the spheres, I mean also finishing the inspection reforms. Of course, I enumerated only some issues among numerous others we had arranged for;

4) The Prime Minster will be granted wide range of freedoms in personnel management: preserving the best personnel regardless of their convictions and nominating new ones by avoiding cronyism and nepotism;

5) We reaffirmed the vital priority for everyone, “the state budget is inviolable while the corruption is forbidden;”

6) The arrangements for these and numerous other issues will be clearly pursued and we will work based on the “boundless support under the conditions of reciprocal truthfulness” formula;

7) This is all. Of course, we will have lots of opportunities to talk about the Government’s further activities.

On behalf of all of us, I would like to thank Tigran Sargsyan for his many-year devoted and faithful work, all the essential achievements of the Government led by him in these years, and I wish him recurrent successes in all his future initiatives to serve the homeland. Dear Tigran, thank you very much and I should reiterate that the position of the RA Prime Minster requires extreme diligence, and all the people who work with devotion, regardless of the attitude toward them, will always be perceptible, acceptable and entitled to respect. Indeed, almost all the persons in our reality who have worked and then either regardless of their will or according to the law left their positions, unfortunately, always seek their successes in the failure of the present ones. This is very bad, and there is also another very blameworthy tendency in my opinion: the people who could have achieved a great success throughout years but were not able, some years later try to teach others how to work in the same position under the same conditions. I am sure that the already previous Government of the Republic of Armenia and the previous Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia are not going to behave in such a manner. We are one team, a coherent team and regardless of where we are now, the success of that team is essential. Thank you very much, Tigran.

By the way, I should inform that Tigran Sargsyan is going to assume a diplomatic position, a vital position, and we will continue the joint work.

I congratulate Hovik Abrahamyan on assuming the helm of the RA Government in this important period. I promise him that we will mobilize all our support to achieve tangible successes in the further development of our country’s economy.

I congratulate you, Mr. Prime Minister.