YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 26, NOYAN TAPAN. The series of measures to counteract the economic crisis, which were presented by the prime minister Tigran Sargsyan, do not contain a description of concrete actions, and for that reason it is impossible to assess them, Bagrat Asatrian, a lecturer of Yerevan State University, former chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA), said during a talk with Noyan Tapan correspondent. To recap, during his speech at the National Assembly on November 12, Tigran Sargsyan presented the government's view on how the global economic crisis may affect Armenia and what actions the government may take to reduce this impact. "Prime ministers have one language of speaking - the state budget. However, none of the anticrisis actions indicated by the prime minister has been reflected in the 2009 state budget," B. Asatrian said. According to him, one of the weak points of the presented program is that it is not clear how the prime minister-proposed measures to assist enterprises can be implemented. The criteria for choosing such enterprises were not presented either, and it is unclear whether the government will be able to resist the current practice of protectionism in Armenia and not to provide subsidies to those who do not need them. On November 20 the government announced that it prepared a bill on these criteria. However, its details were not published. As for the priority goals declared by the government, according to B. Asatrian, these goals were not strengthened by budgetary allocations. Allocations for establishment of a financial center in Armenia are absent, and only 200 thousand dollars have been provided for the purpose of founding a "technopark" in Gyumri. Unlike the government, B. Asatrian considers it unlikely that Armenians living abroad may send their money for being kept in Armenian banks. "True, the Armenian banking system is stable but it is very small. Besides, other "safe havens" exist in the world, there are countries which are more stable and reliable from the political point of view. Why should Armenians living abroad choose Armenia as a place for keeping their money?" the former chairman of CBA said. "On the whole, the government's draft budget contains more promises to develop programs than real programs. I have an apprehension that this government will fail to confront the difficulties awaiting Armenia, serious work is not done in this way," B. Asatrian concluded.

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