Regulating street trading in Yerevan is the right thing to do, as it involves public security, Mkrtich Mkrtcihyan, a member of the Republican Party of Armenia, told journalists Jan 31.

According to him, along with prohibiting street trading the Yerevan Municipality is trying to resolve the employment problem for the traders.

Chairman of the Union of Native Commodity Producers of Armenia Vazgen Safaryan disagreed with Mkrtchyan. He stressed that people have to engage in street trading to earn their daily bread. “We have mass unemployment in Armenia, with 79,000 unemployed officially registered. The real figure is several times as high,” Safaryan said.

He said that Union has elaborated an industrial development policy. “We are going to submit the issues at our forthcoming meeting with the President for the Armenian population to be employed. Any efforts to increase the budget by means of fiscal policy will fail unless jobs are created,” he said.