On April 2, the subsequent parliamentary elections will for the first time be held after the constitutional reforms in Armenia, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan said on Tuesday, speaking at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO).  

''The reforms implemented today will in a year result in a fully-fledged parliamentary system, more active and constitutionally protected functioning of political opposition, and formation of a more transparent and efficient administration.

The election campaign has kicked off, and the first feedback of the international organizations is indicative of the fact that we have managed to create conditions for carrying out electoral processes, which are in conformity with international standards,'' he said.

According to Sargsyan, it is known that the sustainable development is one of the key components of security.

"The processes of the recent years show that in the conditions of limited resources Armenia has managed to form a flexible economic system. As an example I can noted the sector of information and communication technologies, which has become one of the driving forces of our economy during the recent years. The specific weight of that sector is about 4 percent in our GDP, which is comparable to many developed countries.

Our Government has come up with a serious agenda of reforms, which aims to raise the governance level, the investment attractiveness of the country and promote the cooperation between the public and private sectors,'' Sargsyan said.

In his words, one of the key priorities of Armenia is the consistent policy of attracting foreign investments. ''One of the comparative advantages of Armenia is that our country has a preferential trade regime with various countries. In the trade and economic relations with US, Canada, Switzerland, Japan and Norway, Armenia makes use of preferential trade regimes, the so-called Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP),  and the GSP+ regime with EU countries.

We attach great importance to the development of tourism. Since February 23, the Russian citizens can enter the territory of the Republic of Armenia with their natioanl identification documents. I am sure that this will have a very positive impact on the growth of the Russian tourists' flow. But this agreement per se has another important significance, expressing the high level of trust between our countries.

We see the economic development of Armenia through its involvement in the integration unions of the region. In this context, significant role is attached to the OSCE. Despite all the economic hardships, the positive achievements are obvious.  Thanks to the strong basis of the Eurasian integration project, it has been possible to significantly smoothe the negative consequences of the global foreign economic developments, which would be more significant in the absence of the EAEU domestic market. Our membership to the Union enabled us to enter a big—nearly 180-million market—which is a large market for Armenia, where we successfully sell our products. 

It is pleasing that the interest towards the EAEU is growing. The issues of cooperation with China, Iran, India, Singapore and a number of other countries are under discussion. This certainly contributes to the expansion of the EAEU capacities in the international sphere,'' Sargsyan said.