State of emergency requires re-evaluation of economic needs, says opposition MP

The state of emergency necessitates prompt action to conduct a situational analysis, identifying the trends to reprofile the domestic economy, an opposition MP from the Prosperous Armenia party said today, commenting on the prime minister's recent call for "starting everything from a scratch".

"While tourism used to be a priority trend, we cannot expect specific revenues now - at least for a certain period - as it will not be realistic at all. But a failure to prepare and undertake steps potentially keeping the economy on a certain level will be certainly impermissible. I, as a economist, would suggest concentrating the resources on agriculture," Sergey Bagratyan told Tert.am.

The economist said he expects investments in that particular sector to yield a tangible outcome as early as in autumn.

"We must not lose the time period to direct serious investments to the agricultural sector, increasing sowing areas and reprocessing factories, expanding the dairy production and boosting the greenhouse industries. We can speedily realize the agricultural output, as the producit will be some way or another purchased despite the global situation," he added.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in a recent address that the coronavirus-conditioned crisis should be an opportunity for his government to accelerate the wheels of the "economic revolution".

Asked to comment on the country's credit rating, Bagratyan said he doesn't expect international financial institutions to freeze their assets under conditions of the global pandemic.

"We deal with two aspects here, i.e. - the relationship between creditors and debtors. The international institutions and the banking sector are ostensibly prone to turning passive, but that isn't a right approach as no one can virtually keep the money without utilizing it. They too, have obligations to other institutions, which is to say the money isn't just 'hanging in the air'. That money is invested for securing profit. Hence the banks and international institutions will find reliable debtors, and the countries showing the potential to implement reliable programs and identifying the specific target areas, will receive credits on privileged terms. So instead of waiting, we need to stride ahead to attract resources in 'functioning' industries: food production, agriculture and energy," he said.

The lawmaker also addressed the concerns over the government's $7 billion worth debt. "In situations as this, international institutions normally postpone debts, as it isn't virtually possible to serve all the debts in the same regime. All the institutions will restructure their credit duties to allow countries to sigh in a way with relief," Bagratyan said, admitting the imminent economic plight for all world countries and calling government policies to overcome the situation with minimal losses.