Republican Party of Armenia

 The government held a regular meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan.

Before proceeding to the agenda, the Prime Minister suggested reviewing the unprecedented tension of the last 10 days at the contact line. A report was delivered by Minister of Defense Seyran Ohanyan.

On behalf of the Government of the Republic of Armenia, Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan extended deepest condolences to the parents and relatives of the soldiers fallen courageously and offered a minute of silence to honor the memory of the heroes.

Continuing the meeting, the Prime Minister reminded that since this July 1, the Ministry of Finance has been implementing more proactive and coordinated measures in the tax field to ensure an equal playing field for all businesses, including the documentation required for all transactions. Then the Prime Minister gave the floor to the Minister of Finance asking him to report back achievements and shortfalls, as well as to dwell on the steps to take yet in this area.

To partially offset the damage caused to residential buildings in the bordering villages of Tavush Marz through periodical firing that occurred in late July and early August the Government allocated 20 million drams to Tavush Marz administration.

In order to solve the problems raised by the local population throughout the Premier’s visits to frontier regions the Government decided to include the residents of border settlements in the program of reimbursement of former USSR Savings Bank’s Armenia branch deposits made before June 10, 1993.

Another decision was taken to allocate out of the amounts saved from the 6 billion drams earmarked to regional administrations on March 19 for works requiring urgent solution some 38 million drams as partial compensation for the damage caused by wind and hail in Shirak Marz, as well as 50 million has been allocated to 3 communities in Vayots-Dzor region for construction of irrigation pipelines.

Armenia’s water resource effective management may be achieved through the construction and operation of reservoirs. The 2014 Government Action Plan provides for the implementation of a feasibility study for construction of 6 reservoirs. To this end, the Ministry of Territorial Administration was allocated 25 million drams.

The government approved the preliminary plan for construction of the southern railway project. The project will enable a new way in the south of the country that will connect the southern and northern regions. The new road is of primary strategic and economic importance as a way of transits through the Armenian territory.

The government extended until September 1, 2015 the period of validity of one of its previous decisions, allowing the citizens of Syria and Lebanon to get Armenian passports for the first time from the diplomatic missions or consular offices in foreign countries.