YEREVAN, October 21. /ARKA/. By a vote of 85 to 7 and six abstentions Armenia’s National Assembly has approved today the new government’s policy program.

Before the vote, the head of opposition Orinats Yerkir (Country of Law) party’s faction in the parliament Heghine Bisharyan noted that the program is very similar to the previous government’s program. She  suggested that the emphasis should be placed on the fight against monopolies and informal sector. She said also that the faction did not agree with many of its provisions, and therefore would abstain from voting.

Mikael Melkumyan from the Prosperous Armenia party’s parliamentary faction stressed that the party can not share the political responsibility for the program and its MPs will not participate in the vote.

Levon Zurabyan from another oppositional Armenian National Congress argued that the program does not attempt to address the country’s major economic and other problems lacking also concrete estimates of the situation and models of economic development.

"It contains only a set of tools that the government plans to use in its activities. The program lacks any financial or economic indicator, perhaps, because the experience of previous programs shows that they are not fulfilled.  There are no GDP, investment or other economic indicators. The impression is that this government was set up to create a positive impression for the population before the elections ", - Zurabyan said.

Only the Armenian Revolutionary Federation/ Dashnaktsutyun, the coalition partner of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, endorsed the program.

In his closing speech, prime minister Karen Karapetyan thanked the lawmakers and in response to remarks that the program does not provide for specific figures and indicators, noted that the program, as in many countries, contains only basic conceptual approaches and principles of the government’s activities, while concrete parameters are laid down in the budget.

Formally, the government program covers a six- month period, because after the parliamentary elections to be held in the spring of 2017, this government will have to resign. -0-