ArmInfo. At the joint meeting of the NA standing committees on foreign relations and financial and budgetary issues and economic management, the Artsakh National Assembly, chaired by Aram Grigoryan and Arzik Mkhitaryan, discussed annual expenditures planned by the state budget for 2018 in the sphere of international relations and tourism, Public TV and radio companies and the newspaper Azat Artsakh.
According to the press service of the legislative body, presenting the budget expenditures report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Minister Masis Mayilyan noted that the estimated cost of maintaining the department was about 783 million drams, 681 million drams were spent, or 86.9% of the stipulated amount. According to the decision of the government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs additionally allocated 54 million 771 thousand drams. The Minister of Culture, Youth and Tourism, Lernik Hovhannisyan, speaking about the budget execution in the field of tourism for 2018, noted that 25 million drams were allocated for the development of the sphere. According to the minister, the amount was distributed between "participation in events held in Armenia", "publishing work", "installation and maintenance of indexes", "participation of Artsakh in international tourist events", <marketing work "," organization of festivals and educational visits ".
Expenses of the Azat Artsakh newspaper made up 86 million 120 thousand drams or 100% of the planned expenses. Editor Norek Gasparyan reports that the newspaper provided its own revenues from advertising, ads and, to some extent, from subscriptions. During the meeting, issues related to the volume of subscriptions to the newspaper were discussed. Chairman of the Artsakh Republic Public TV and Radio Company Arsen Arustamyan, speaking of the Council's expenses in 2018, noted that 25 million 416 thousand drams (90.9%) were spent instead of the planned 27 million 960 thousand drams.