YEREVAN. – Additional funds are not necessary to double the minimum wage in Armenia, opposition Armenian National Congress MP and former PM Hrant Bagratyan—who had proposed a respective bill—said during a press conference on Thursday.

“You don’t need serious additional expenditures here. The wealthy, the oligarchs must share, must give to the people,” he said. 

It became apparent that the Government rejected Bagratyan’s aforementioned law proposal and this was not a surprise for him.

“The Government explained that this [bill] will increase shadow [economy]. This is utter nonsense. We need AMD 2 billion [approx. $ 4,842,966] to double the minimum wage,” he said.   

In his words, changing and fixing Armenia’s economy is more difficult than it was in the 1990s. But the former PM sees two ways out of this situation: the economy must be democratized, or, what Azerbaijan has done must be implemented; that is, the economy is in the hands of one clan.    

Photo by Sona Barseghyan