"Fact" daily writes:
It is not a secret for those in the know that business life and the investment environment have been consistently deteriorating in Armenia for the past 5-6 years. Moreover, various economists and other specialists regularly speak about this. Immediately after Nikol Pashinyan and his group came to power, one of the first steps, you will remember, was practically canceling the so-called "bank secrecy". This was already a "yellow card" for potential investors. We will not elaborate here on what kind of milky rivers and shared banks Nikol Pashinyan promised both after coming to power and especially during the years of "opposition work", even more so during the "velvet, non-violent" and so on "revolution" days. Businessmen are not fans of such rhymes, but are extremely "down to earth" and are guided, as a rule, by dry calculations and concrete realities. Even more, large and especially large owners, investors, large companies. And for them, turning "bank secrecy" into something conventional is a "stop" signal. But that's not the only problem. The Pashinyan authorities, understandably, by the direct orders of their prime minister, immediately threw themselves into the "business world", so to speak, to make a feather. If briefly, they quickly moved on to such actions, which they themselves were strongly criticizing at the time. This is both "imposing a burden" on business representatives in connection with the contribution to various "funds", and giving privileges to the Pashinyan oligarchs, and providing "their own" with state orders, according to which, what kind of competition, all at once, "buying from one person" , and the "lookers" on businessmen (sorry for using Pashinyan words). We will return to those and not only those phenomena. There is no shortage of examples and facts. But first, about the relatively "fresh" information. Lately, and not only in chat rooms or press pages, but also in the corridors of power, there have been intense conversations about, so to speak, taking away the HEC. It is about "taking away" the company "Electric Networks of Armenia" from Samvel Karapetyan, a big businessman, the chairman of the "Tashir" group of companies. Or at least some of it. It is true that the other day Samvel Karapetyan denied this in a conversation with journalists, stating that the authorities do not do anything like that, but, well, it is difficult to hide the makhat in the park, and the smoke is not without fire. The point is that in the context of the fire at the Yerevan HPP, the accidents of the NPP and the periodic interruptions in energy supply caused by them, there were a number of publications in the press that the Pashinyan authorities are preparing the ground to exploit the existing grievances and change the owner of the NPP. : In the near future, we think, there will be certainty in this matter. Taking into account the practices of Pashinyan's government, it cannot be ruled out that they will simply "enter" the National Assembly. Possibly in the face of the government. They have the experience of that. Now, some people will say: but those revenues go to the state, don't they? But first, one can calmly counter those who say that, and what do you know, why are you so sure? When did Pashinyan's government submit reports on any issue, especially financial and economic issues? We are talking about a government that went into the pocket of Hayastan Foundation and immediately took 100 million dollars... to distribute bonuses. Were they ever held accountable? We are talking about a government that did not even officially publish the names of those who died in the war, keeping the real numbers of the dead a secret. is already the second "yellow card" for potential investors. And two yellow stones, as is known, become a red card. In other words, any reasonable investor, knowing these phenomena and facts, will not want to deal with such a country at all. But the bad thing is that the issues are not only the phenomena of the said Hori. Let's list a few more: First, Pashinyan's government does not have a component of duration and reliability in terms of the stability of the economic "rules of the game". Let's say, it doesn't have it not only at the economic moment, but also in general. This is a government that can change the "rules of the game" at any moment, go to bed and wake up, and voila, new laws are in place. It's frivolous to say the least. And for businesses and investors, repulsive. Moreover, recently, the Pashinyan government's secretaries are developing bills designed to put the existing businessmen under more severe pressure. We are talking, you guessed it, about the "Nicolas" bill, by which it is planned to not only fine a businessman in case of any tax violation (hiding taxes), not only to receive compensation from him, but also to keep him in prison. It's clear, isn't it? what is the purpose of this? The goal, by and large, is to keep businessmen under control so that they don't suddenly play political games, to be "smart", in short. Otherwise, a violation can be "found" in everyone. What's more, there are many examples when businessmen with oppositional views or businessmen who are members of the family of opposition figures are and are being prosecuted, even completely unjustified arrest. Such practices, which are demonstrated by the Pashinyan government, drive away businessmen and investors from Armenia. Those who have been are thinking about leaving, withdrawing their capital, freezing or closing their business, and the new ones have no desire to enter our country. And that means that no investments are made in the real economy, those that are there are drastically reduced, and that means that incomes and well-being are declining, and that means that the country is also becoming economically vulnerable. And when "it can't be done like this anymore" will become an approach for businessmen, they will probably know that.
