We are in a systemic economic crisis, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during his Facebook livestream on Monday.

In his words, they have a challenge with respect to the economic structure of Armenia, and the latter needs to be turned from an agrarian country into an industrial one. 

“As a prelude to this, we consider the process of encouraging work,” the PM added. “We will do everything—both in the village and the city—so that the person will be interested in working. We will encourage work, not poverty [in Armenia].”

Pashinyan commented also on the country’s budgetary process for the coming year.

“We must go forward step by step, with very specific reforms,” he noted, in particular. “Our objective shall be turning Armenia into an industrial country, and raising the level of efficiency of public administration.”

Pashinyan stressed that in order to take Armenia out of the economic crisis, they wish to place the logic of the country’s recent velvet revolution on the basis of the transformation of Armenia’s economy too.

“Not a team of political leaders, but the people did the revolution,” the premier stressed. “We wish to do the same in the economy. We need to create equal conditions for all (…) where each and everyone will have the opportunity to carry out economic activity within the framework of his talent.”