YEREVAN. – The fact that Armenia needs to have a strong military industry complex stems from the security environment in which we are. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Wednesday said this at a meeting with members of the Union of Military Manufacturers and heads of military industry companies.
“Yesterday a very important event took place for Armenia’s economy and Armenia’s international economic status,” he said. “Moody’s ratings organization has upgraded Armenia’s sovereign rating, and there is a point in the rationales that is very much in line with today’s meeting of ours.
“The most important from the justifications for raising that rating is that the government of the Republic of Armenia has adopted a strategy and a policy of developing the knowledge-based sectors of Armenia’s economy; and it’s really so. I have said many times that our vision for Armenia’s economy is as follows: Armenia shall be an industrial country; and in industry and economy, we give priority role to the military industry complex.”
Subsequently, the Prime Minister specified why Armenia needs a strong military industry.
“First, the fact that our country needs to have a strong military industry complex stems from the security environment in which we are,” he said. “Second is Armenia’s economic development, the creation of new jobs in Armenia, and the vision for making Armenia a country that has a highly skilled workforce. And the military industry complex is a domain where qualification is assumed—starting with the worker. Export strategy is also very important to us, and our strategic course should be such that Armenia’s military industry complex will have the opportunity to work on foreign markets.”
Pashinyan also stressed that a domestic market should be provided for the military industry complex of Armenia.
“We need to be able to secure state orders so that the complex can live, stand on its feet, develop, and give competitive product,” he said. “Not everything has been smooth in this domain; I mean the state order domain. By formulating the political intention, we need to understand the problem here in depth because by saying that we must secure a state order for the complex, the objective is to assists so that the complex becomes competitive in the international market.
“It’s our intention that the military industry complex doesn’t survive on the petty, ‘make do’ logic of the state order, but that the state order shall help the complex develop and be competitive in the domestic and foreign market. I want to emphasize the domestic market, since if it turns out that we can import the same product much cheaper, we have a very difficult choice to make.”
