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The parliament debated the issue on approving the 2021 annual report on the implementation of the Privatization of State Property program for 2017-2020.

According to the Chairman of the State Property Management Committee of the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Arnak Avetisyan, the state-owned shares of 2 companies were prioritized through a classic auction and the state-owned share of 1 company was prioritized through direct sale. The funds received from the privatization amounted to 407 million 547 thousand AMD, of which 294 million AMD was transferred at the expense of the privatization of the RA state budget, and 112 million AMD was transferred to the community budgets.

It was noted that the document also reflects the information on the commitments made by the new owners as a result of the privatization transactions and their implementation, also on the liquidation process and the liabilities repaid as a result.

An addition was made to the program in the reporting year – the Special Mountain Rescue Service CJSC was included in the list of the privatization program.

The NA Vice President Hakob Arshakyan inquired whether steps are being taken to introduce a system to improve state property management, which is public property in our country.

According to Arnak Avetisyan, there are many problems in the field of state property management, phenomena of ineffective management. The rapporteur underlined that a number of steps have been taken to improve the situation since 2018, which have had positive results. “A new concept of state property management was adopted. We will improve it this year, new more flexible mechanisms for state property management, alienation and privatization will be introduced. For the first time, clear measures and indicators for the programmes to be implemented in the field were defined by the Government programme,” Arnak Avetisyan said.

The deputy Aren Mkrtchyan tried to find out from the rapporteur what is the status of the investor’s application for the purchase of a state-owned building to establish a diamond processing plant in Alaverdi.

In response to the deputy’s question, Arnak Avetisyan noted that there is a draft decision of the Government on the programme, which will be approved in the near future. “We will have the opportunity to control the investment commitments and to ensure the implementation of the programme,” the rapporteur emphasized. He added that, as a result of tenders announced by the State Property Management Committee, there are investment commitments of about 10 billion AMD undertaken by different economic entities since the beginning of the year.

The issue was debated and endorsed in the NA Standing Committee on Economic Affairs. The Committee member Narek Ghahramanyan voiced about this.