Economist: Artificially created tension prevent investments in Armenia

ArmInfo.Artificially created domestic political tension prevents the foreign investments in Armenia. Economist Vahagn Khachatryan expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo. "The indicators of foreign direct investment for the first quarter of 2019 speak for themselves.

Here is the biggest problem that hinders investment flows. Businesses need certainty and clarity, however, in this regard, business still expects them. The businessmen were told that the rules of the game had changed, explained the new rules and said that these rules will be monitored and guaranteed by the government. It is about eradicating corruption and stopping the promotion of monopolies, what the government is doing now, " he stressed. According to the RA Statistics Committee, in the first quarter of 2019, the balance of foreign direct investment in the Armenian economy of Armenia decreased by 37 billion drams from 40 billion drams in the first quarter of 2018. Nevertheless, according to expert estimates, the business continues to be in a waiting state, since in addition to the above factors, there is another factor - political, in particular, artificially created domestic political tensions around the judicial system. According to his estimates, this process is very well organized and directed primarily against the government of Nikol Pashinyan. In particular, people who strive at all costs to avoid responsibility under the law for their own actions, try to present the current government as temporary, unable to last more than a year. Which, of course, directly affects the investment climate in Armenia. According to Khachatryan hereto is added the need to reform the judicial system itself. In his opinion, the investors of the past years had problems in Armenia mainly with the courts and repeatedly became convinced that in the corrupt Armenian courts their interests could not be protected by definition. Today, they see how the same courts even oppose the state, which accordingly affects the investment climate in the country. "In other words, the courts and judges in Armenia have not changed, they continue to make decisions on the instructions of the authorities, only not present , but the former authorities. This is a very important problem standing in the way of investment, which needs to be solved and resolved as soon as possible. In this light, the tough actions of the government and the parliament in the direction of the speediest recovery of the judicial system are quite correct, although somewhat late.

Accordingly, it is necessary to act without waiting for even vetting and transitional justice on the basis of the laws and the norms of the Constitution in force. This is quite possible, especially since the decisions of the ECHR, a number of court cases proving the unlawful activities of judges, provide the state with an opportunity to legally indicate such judges to their true place, " Khachatryan concluded.