NA Speaker delivers speech in Geneva
President of the Armenian Parliament Hovik Abrahamyan made a speech at the third World Conference of Speakers of Parliament going on in Geneva. Speakers of Parliament from 150 countries participate in the Conference.
Hovik Abrahamyan's speech was mainly dedicated to the global financial-economic crisis.
"With its volume, geography and consequences, the global financial crisis has shown that the global economy faces new challenges," Hovik Abrahamyan said.
"In some countries the financial crisis grew into a political one, and governments were forced to resign. This comes to prove the necessity of reforming the field of global macroeconomic management and regulation of financial markets.
I think we must do our utmost to raise public awareness, provide transparency and full parliamentary supervision. We must apply parliamentary mechanisms aimed at increasing budget supervision.
Despite the fact that the main responsibility for resisting the crisis lays with the government, the parliaments of our countries should have the capacity of making necessary decisions. These include decreasing the influence of the crisis on the unemployed and most vulnerable layers of society.
Transparency and the ability to start a dialogue with citizens are of vital importance in political processes.
Touching upon the influence of the crisis on Armenia and reminding that on November 12, 2008 the Armenian Government presented its anti-crisis program to the Parliament, Hovik Abrahamyan stated: "The National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia played an important role in the process of alleviating the consequences of the financial crisis. In close cooperation with the President and the Government, the Parliament managed to adopt and implement necessary legislative amendments for realization of the anti-crisis measures."
"Thanks to joint efforts the world is able to solve the existing problems and move forward towards stable development and peaceful co-existence," Mr. Abrahamyan concluded.
