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On March 10, a debate initiated by the Working Group of the NA Standing Committee on Economic Affairs on the Issues of the Investment Promotion was held in parliament. The proposed amendments to Article 188 of the RA Civil Code and to the Law on Preservation and Use of the Immovable Historical and Cultural Monuments and Historical Environment are at the center of attention.

The representatives of the RA Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, Yerevan Municipality and the Fund Investment Center were invited at the meeting.

The Head of the Working Group Nikolay Baghdasaryan presented the main amendments: it is proposed since the adoption of the law to forbid the lawfulness of autocratically built buildings constructed on the state and community land and recognize the lawfulness and state registration of autocratically built buildings constructed to date by force of law, if a construction work was carried out in accordance with the criteria envisaged by the Government decision. The cases of not having relevant construction permit documents will be an exception.

The next problem was the protection of the entities’ rights. The state often allows an entity to carry out construction work, however, during the process, it is found out that it is a special protection area and the construction work is stopped. “We want to exclude that situation, that is; the state should say from the beginning that this is a special protection area, or not. If it is not a special protection area, then a construction is allowed and nothing is possible to change during the process. And if monuments are found during the construction or goods of archeological values then excavations should be carried out by the entities, without stopping the construction work,” Baghdasaryan said.

The representatives of the Fund Investment Support Center alarm that numerous investment programmes do not become a reality, because entities face legislative problems. A compatible version should be found, as a result of which, the investor will not suffer and the historical and cultural monuments will not be damaged. The representatives of the Ministry have claimed that the investment programme should satisfy the certain legislative procedures.

“Restrictions are made by the Ministry aimed at protecting the monuments. It is not right to be guided only by the investor’s interest,” the Head of Department for Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments of the ESCS Ministry Harutyun Vanyan documented.

According to the Acting Director of the Scientific Research Center of the Historical and Cultural Heritage SNCO of the ESCS Ministry Hovhannes Sanamyan, works should be carried out only to protect and restore the monuments in the area of monuments.

The Acting Head of the Legal Department of the staff of Yerevan Municipality Andranik Muradyan referred to the clarification of monument protection zones and the transfer of the database of buildings to the electronic platform.

The NA deputy Tsovinar Vardanyan has highlighted the legislative solutions which will not harm either the investor or the process for protection of historical and cultural values. She proposed to give a solution to the problem by law and by studying concrete cases. “The entity should clearly know what restrictions there are in that area,” the deputy said.

A proposal was voiced to mention the category of a land in the cadastral certificate.

As a result of the reached mutual agreement, if the state forbids the entity to carry out construction work, then not only the damage should be compensated, but also the unearned benefit.

The issue of what is more harmful to the state, to allow to carry out construction work or to stop it and provide compensation was discussed. “There is an experience of Italy and France: it is allowed to carry out construction work in that place, however the entity is obliged to protect those monuments, that is the entity bears the costs, but, at the same time, the entity makes use of certain tax privileges,” Nikolay Baghdasaryan said.