No logic, no calculation
Founding member of the Armenian National Congress, former Prime Minister Hrant Bagratyan believes that the accumulated funds to be collected for the pension fund within 40 years must serve the Homeland, as well as the construction and renovation of infrastructures. However, the government will use the accumulated deposits of the population worth 350-400 million dollars and the government's 400 million dollars which will be directed toward the pension fund with 800 million dollars to purchase foreign bonds and keep them "abroad" to distribute the pensions years later, when that money could have been spent on solving domestic issues. According to Hrant Bagratyan, the pension fund will become the most profitable bank and will especially serve oligarchs.
How logical is it to put the 800 million dollars in foreign bonds "to sleep" abroad after the government took a 40 million dollar loan from the World Bank with low interest rate a couple of days ago? In response, Hrant Bagratyan said it was illogical.
"We take the money and purchase bonds at 4 percent interest rate and take loans. There is a plan to add an additional 1-1.5 billion dollar loan and there is no logic at all. There are no calculations, approaches, analysis or good will."
The former RA Prime Minister also noted that even the Central Bank's reserves are kept abroad. "We are not developing at all."
What is standing in Armenia's way? Recently, Levon Ter-Petrosyan said that the reason for emigration and underdevelopment is the unresolved Karabakh conflict and no normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations. Are there more people leaving the country due to the status-quo, or social injustice and the clan-oligarchic system? In response Hrant Bagratyan noted that people are leaving due to the Karabakh conflict and social injustice and whereas in 1993 they were mainly leaving due to the war and the danger of death, many people also left due to the social conditions in the post-war period.
"They used to say Armenia had 12 percent economic growth when Russia only had 4-5 percent. But for some reason, people were going to Russia to work," said Bagratyan.
According to statistics, 250,000 people have left the country before and after the war respectively.
