In yesterday’s meeting the government approved good documents, even longed-for ones. Amendments to the tax code were approved which will relieve the life of SMEs. The amendments were hailed by all the TV channels.
But here is a strange thing. The government approved the amendments now when the parliament’s mandate ends, and nobody knows what the next parliament will be. Is this the prime minister’s populism who wants to show off some 10 days before the elections? Or is he planting a mine under the next government?
One way or another, the government pretends as if no elections are coming up and it will continue to work for another 5 years and its last steps look like cleaning. In a month the government will have another government, and Tigran Sargsyan knows it better than anyone. Therefore, he hurried to approve the tender results for two major sections of the North-South highway worth 250 million dollars.
Yesterday it became known that a Spanish company has been awarded a contract based on the result of the tender in which Chinese companies participated as well. The project is funded by the Asian Development Bank which refused to award contracts to the Armenian companies which won the past few tenders. In fact, Tigran Sargsyan was unable to “award” this major project to local companies.
Yesterday an agreement on free economic zone was signed with Sitronics. The FEZ was one of the declared priorities of Tigran Sargsyan’s policy and he has perhaps decided to fulfill this promise as well. It is true that it was established in the Russian territory but apparently it was one of Tigran Sargsyan’s last tasks.
It is notable that the Republicans have not announced yet that in case of victory they will nominate Tigran Sargsyan. In fact, the parties keep their shadow prime ministers secret with only 9 days before the parliamentary elections.
However, it is not a matter of persons who could occupy the post of the prime minister. What matters is whether anyone will be able to offer fundamental economic transformation. Prosperous Armenia pretending for majority in parliament offers some amorphous measures. A party whose leader says an oligarch is good because he helps people cannot support redistribution of property and economic system.
The Armenian National Congress also offers fragmental steps such as compensation for lost savings and tax amnesty but does not declare fundamental review of the economic system.
The sociologist Aaron Adibekyan announced yesterday that Armenia’s foreign debt authored by Tigran Sargsyan will further guarantee him the post of prime minister. Though this argument does not seem strong enough, Tigran Sargsyan may rest in his place because there will not be a convincing alternative.
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