Structural changes: ministers are concerned (video)
Today at the Government session PM Karen Karapetyan announced that he had decided to rename a number of ministries, to make several structural changes and to dissolve some of them. He announced that the Ministry of Economy will be renamed to Ministry of Investments and Support to Enterprises, ‘Information Technologies’ word combination is added to the Ministry of Transport and Communication, the Ministry of Urban Development will be rearranged and removed from the list, and it is supposed that it will be established in the form of committee. “Renaming the Ministry of Economy, we tell the businessmen that you have a circle, where you can express your observations and wants and in order to support them, we need economic analysis. State Committee on Water Economy will be withdrawn from the Ministry of Agriculture. We have many problems connected with water economy, which must be solved. The logic is that we shouldn’t offend the villagers, but it leads to ineffective expenses. I don’t want to give rise to an impression that we are making subjective steps at the expense of a new governor. The Aviation Department will be transferred to the Ministry of Transport and Communication. The Tourism Department will be separated from the Ministry of Economy and will be turned into a committee and they will face concrete issues, as we have fallen behind our neighbor. Instead of the Ministry of Urban Development, I think, Ministry of Architecture and Cultural Preservation will be established. The Minister of Culture thinks that it is wrong, as architects are aggressive, inclined to changes, and in this case cultural values will be endangered. I want to highlight at the end that we haven’t considered today’s structural changes critical and an end in itself.” Minister of Economy Artsvik Minasyan opposed saying that it isn’t pleasing for him that the name “economy” will be removed, “Though, accepting your stress, Mr Prime Minister, I am concerned about several issues, which are within the frames of the Minister’s powers, but cannot be seen in the name. For example, external trade, which is the main driving force of the economy.” Minister of Culture Hasmik Poghosyan alarmed connected with preservation of cultural values, “I urge you to discuss the rearrangement of the Ministry of Urban Development very seriously.” Minister of Urban Development Narek Sargsyan noted that they mean only the buildings under reconstruction and not the cultural values. The PM added at the end that only that word is removed from the Ministry of Economy.
