2024-05-13 02:24:05
Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan announced today in the National Assembly that the volume of foreign direct investments for the first time in the history of Armenia amounted to about 1 billion dollars, which is 5.13 percent of our gross domestic product.
In a conversation with Aysor.am, head of the “Innovation and Institutional Research” research laboratory of the State University of Economics of Armenia, candidate of economics, associate professor Atom Margaryan, referring to Kerobyan’s statement, said that no one will be surprised by those numbers now. “There has been a catastrophic devaluation of the dollar. dram devaluation, an unprecedented jump in inflation, and yet it is not clear how many jobs those 1 billion added and in which sectors. Yes, money from mining, casinos, lotto-totos, offshore zones, or Russian capital that “escaped” from the Russian Federation through the pockets of defectors, came to Armenia in many ways. But I repeat, which high-tech sectors have strengthened, increased and, most importantly, created added value and increased well-being? They are just macro numbers, manipulations that experts do not take seriously. They are just propaganda tools that are thrown at the public. the bigger and inflated the numbers are, the more people seem to forget what is happening at the borders, what is happening in Artsakh, what kind of creeping genocide is being carried out, etc. Such reports are of no value to serious people. Let them present one by one what kind of highly profitable jobs were created in which sector, who were the entities receiving or making these investments and what kind of trajectory they created.”
According to Margaryan, investments can create dangers for the country. “For example, I do not consider the mining sectors, which have created an extremely dangerous ecological situation, to be positive investments. Secondly, I don’t consider investments, in the classical sense, to be made in the gaming business. They degenerate and destroy the society and especially the positive trends of youth development. What is the talk about:
Macroeconomic figures, yes, can be presented in a very nice, pretty, flat form, but there is nothing underneath. I would advise those presenting such figures to compare the situation in the 2000s, when double-digit growth was recorded, double-digit reports were made, and what ended up with double-digit declines. That growth, the investments are made in the construction sector, mainly at the expense of post-income tax refund benefits, and I call it direct budget looting. It is the same picture as in Kocharyan’s time. There is probably nothing new here. Even then, multi-billion dollar investments were made. If so much money came from private sources, why did the state debt of our country increase by 1 billion every year and today it is around 11 billion? It is illogical. It would be good if high-ranking officials would explain this paradox. Deputies sitting in the parliament do not raise such questions because they are not competent. For serious people, such agendas are simply ridiculous.”
The economist also referred to the Ministry’s plans to have trade representatives in China, the USA and Germany and noted that this is nothing new, such thoughts and ideas have always existed. soul with their families, nation and people will feel good in those countries. We have had economic attachés in the embassies, and now there are, and what did they do?
In general, I look at this question philosophically. The public administration system is over-inflated. There should be drastic reductions, especially ministries. Such solutions, which refer to the increase of jobs in the public sector, as well as the above, are not a solution to the issue. Those jobs must be created domestically. But we see those jobs being created in the service sector, construction, mining, casinos. These kinds of judgments that are made, we understand why they are made. Let them make investments in the field of military industry and face the threats and challenges that today threaten the state of Armenia, statehood and the existence of Artsakh. They should have been done during these 5 years. Let them show a factory that produces middle-class weapons and ammunition, which is the result of their investment.”