A “mobilizing” budget

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Economist, Deputy of the National Assembly's "Prosperous Armenia" faction, vice-chairman of the parliament's standing committee on economic issues Vardan Bostanjyan answered "A1+"'s questions regarding the 500 million dollar loan granted by Russia.

"Spending money is also a process and not an easy one. It requires the time and place, the field and courses in order to be effective," the economist said, affirming that the government didn't know why it was taking the loan, which fields it was going to use it for and in what timeframe.

"We still haven't managed to use the money in spheres where the money was supposed to have a speedy effect," Bostanjyan said.

"A1+" asked Vardan Bostanjyan how much should the RA development budget be.

"Armenia had to have a budget of at least 5 billion dollars for development in order to talk about development," he said.

Let us remind that in 2009, there was 3 billion dollars in the budget at the low dollar exchange rate, but now there is 2.6 billion dollars.

How would you describe this year's budget? In response, Bostanjyan said:

"It is a budget that has mobilized Armenia's total potential to solve state issues. Some might call it a budget of survival and others might call it something else. I have always been the one giving names, but this time it is not correct to give it a name. Despite the people and the quality of governance, the financial crisis has had its first noticeable and essentially negative impact on Armenia."