On March 28, took place the conference titled “Armenia on the Edge of Changes” organized by the “Orbeli” Center, which was attended by the RA high-ranking officials, experts from Armenia and abroad.

Panel discussions of the Conference were covered by the 4 main topics: “Velvet Revolution: Why and How? The New Reality of Armenia”, “The Role of Think Tanks in the Transforming World and their Influence on the Development of States”, “Post-revolutionary Armenia: Challenges and Opportunities” and “The Vision of Development of Armenia”.

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During the panel discussion of “Velvet Revolution: Why and How? The New Reality of Armenia”, Arayik Harutyunyan, RA Minister of Education and Science, touched upon the events happened in Armenia in April-May of 2018, emphasizing the importance of involvement of civil society and broader community layers.

Paul Stronski, Senior Associate at Carnegie Foundation, mentioned in his speech, that preconditions of the events happened in Armenia in 2018 were the recent achievements of civil society as well as the shortcomings of the previous authorities.

Senior Researcher of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies Konstantin Tasits’ speech was devoted to the reasons of the velvet revolution in Armenia and to the various perceptions of Russian experts about events in Armenia.

Expert at “Orbeli” Center Hrant Ser-Abrahamyan observed in his speech the revolution in the Republic of Armenia not only in inter-political context but also in the context of global processes. “Since 2010 the situation around Armenia has changed: instability of the Middle East, new Cold War between the West and Russia… All this changed the environment around Armenia and those processes, even indirectly, could affect. And our revolution and the post-revolutionary situation should be viewed in a wider context”, said Ter-Abrahamyan.

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During “Post-revolutionary Armenia: Challenges and Opportunities” panel discussion, Tigran Khachatryan, RA Minister of Economic Development and Investments, underlined the importance of qualitative economic growth. “We cannot produce everything as good as the world produces: we can produce some good things and present them in the neighboring markets”, mentioned the Minister. According to T. Khachatryan, the state policy should be aimed at the development of such industries, which have export potential and stable competitiveness in foreign markets.  

Kakha Gogolashvili, Senior-Fellow at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, mentioned in his speech that after the velvet revolution people’s confidence in the ruling political party gives authorities an opportunity to make reforms in tax and customs spheres as well as in the police and justice spheres.

Hayk Gevorgyan, RA NA deputy, highlighted the systemic steps taken in Armenia during the post-revolutionary period: significant reduction of corruption, liberalisation of markets, as well as investment growth.

Tatul Manaseryan, Doctor of Economics, Head of the “Alternative” Analytical Center, touched upon the RA development pillars: economic security, competitiveness and economic diplomacy.

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During the panel discussion titled “The Vision of Development of Armenia”, Tigran Avinyan, RA Deputy Prime Minister, spoke about the political directions of the development, on the basis of which is the welfare vision of a citizen and an individual. “We sum up the formula of a human-centered public policy in a simple wording: both in our pre-election program and in our Government’s program we have always talked not about an economic growth, which is also important, but about the well-being of people and about the real changes”, mentioned Mr. Avinyan. The Deputy Prime Minister presented in detail the model of inclusive economic growth, aimed at ensuring people’s participation in economic processes.    

Suren Papikyan, RA Minister of Territorial Administration and Development, touched upon the issue of importance of balanced development, where the local democracy has a pivotal importance.