Armenia Records Major Improvements in Democratic Progress and Economic Freedoms Indicators

YEREVAN (Arka.am) — Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during his morning live report on Facebook spoke about Armenia’s new achievements in international organizations’ rankings.

He suggested that fellow citizens take a break from the tense situation due to the coronavirus and enjoy the positive assessments of Armenia in the field of democratization and economic freedoms.

Democratic Progress
Pashinyan said that the initiative “Varieties of Democracy” Institute published a world report on democracy for 2020, which states that although there is a serious increase in authoritarianism in the world, nevertheless Armenia records high democratization indicators in 2019.

In his words, the report states that democratic activists in Armenia can now reap the benefits of their peaceful rallies and that they can celebrate the fact that since 2019 (apparently, parliamentary elections are meant) the country has been ruled by a democratically elected government.

“And here, not only the overall assessment is important, but the specifics, since the report is not only a textual part, but also specific indicators for measuring the level of democratization,” the prime minister added.

Pashinyan noted that on the indicator of “elective democracy” Armenia upgraded its rank from 117th to 34th, on the component of “liberality” – from 125th to 65th, on “equality” – from 63rd to 40th, in “competitiveness” – from the 105th to 52nd, in “advisory” – from 113th to 31st.

The prime minister stressed that in advisory democracy category, the report’s important components are validity (that is, the government’s explanation of its actions), public interests (how much the government’s actions correspond to these interests), respect for counterarguments (from the government), and so on.

Also, according to him, the authors of the report pointed out the high level of women’s participation in politics and civil rights and certain progress in the involvement of civil society.

Speaking about the negative components, the premier pointed out that in Armenia, protectionism has come close to the minimum level and it will be rooted out soon. “And in terms of the level of corruption of the executive branch, we are also approaching a minimum,” Pashinyan said.

Indicator of Economic Freedoms
Then Nikol Pashinyan analyzed Armenia’s achievements in the “Indicator of Economic Freedoms in 2020.”

“Important is that the status of Armenia in this report has changed this year. Earlier our economy was considered “moderately free”, while in 2020 it was rated as “mostly free”. Armenia recorded progress in 13 categories and now came 34th in the ranking,” Pashinyan said.

According to the report, Armenia has made progress on 8 indicators, including property rights, the effectiveness of the judiciary, government trustworthiness, and the tax burden.

The prime minister said that according to the authors of the study, the progress of Armenia is largely due to the sharp increase in the improvement of fiscal policy. “In the European region, our country is 18th among 45,” he said.

In his words, the report also contains recommendations, in particular, Armenia should attract investment and liberalize the economy and it should also pay great attention to strengthening the effectiveness of the judicial system and improving the reliability of the management system. “This means that the direction of our economic policy is in tune with the trends of international experts,” said Pashinyan.

It is also noted that the processes for starting businesses and concluding contracts have been modernized, the protection of small investors has improved, there is a quality workforce, but the level of professionalism is insufficient.

“These reports are important in that after the current economic crisis we will have to carry out serious economic reforms, attract investments in the republic. And serious investors study such reports in order to understand which countries they can deal with, what processes are going on there, whether it is worth investing there,” Pashinyan said.

He said that Armenia still has plenty to do, and after overcoming the threat of the coronavirus the authorities will embark on building a new, real, happier, stronger and reliable future.