“WHAT IS TO BE DONE?”: SCIENTIFIC-PRACTICAL CONFERENCE RESULTS IN CREATION OF TIES BETWEEN ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT

Acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan was present at the conference too.

At the beginning of the conference the President of the UMBA Arsen Ghazaryan noted that the idea of the scientific-practical conference organization appeared a few months ago. According to him, a few months ago the representatives of the Armenian economics started to think and write about the current fundamental problems of economic development in Armenia and the directions of strategies as a result of which today we have a collection of scientific-practical reports entitled “What is to be done? Current fundamental problems and strategic directions of development of economics in Armenia”.

It should be noted that the authors of the majority of the reports published in “What is to be done? Current fundamental problems and strategic directions of development of economics in Armenia” book represent YSU.
Ysu.am talked about the themes, aims and plans of the conference with the Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Management of YSU, Professor Hayk Sargsyan and the head of the Chair of management and Business Karlen Khachatryan.

- Mr. Sargsyan, how did the idea of creating such a manual appear?

- As regards sustainable, auspicious socio-economic development we haven’t seen a good period for about three decades. We have all grounds to say so: large-scale emigration, living standards decrease, poverty, loss of trust for government and hopes for better future-in a word, an oppressive atmosphere was created. Numerous analyses were done on this theme, however there are few reports on what is to be done. So, we and the UMBA pursued the goal to have a manual to express positions related to future problems, to outline the directions towards finding ways out. We are sure that it will be in demand. It is highly important to forecast the directions of the main structural movements in the country and not to delay deep reforms.

- What was the first theme of the conference?

- It started with the ambitious report entitled “ The greatest problem of the authorities is to increase the level of the constitutionality” which, in fact, became the pillar round which, we think, the RA Government vision of development should develop. Throughout the last years we said that to develop a business a person needs to have a good sponsor, “a roof”. And now, at the new government, this sponsor is to be the high level of constitutionalism.

We see that the most important factors are democracy and institutional development. We have already achieved some results in democracy but still have problems with institutionalism.

- How did the RA acting Prime Minister respond to this conference?

- I have to say that the participation of the top-authorities of the country in the person of the acting Prime minister Nikol Pashinyan and the acting Minister of Economic Development and Investments Tigran Khachatryan was a priority task for us. And we were encouraged when summarizing the discussions developed in the first part of the conference Mr. Pashinyan said that the first 5 reports contained the logic and the priorities of their policy, what they have done, what they are trying to do and what they are going to do better.

- Can it be stated that “What is to be done?” will become a manual for the RA Government?

- We shall see. In the USSR there were tens of scientific and research institutes which served various spheres-agriculture, industry and so on. They submitted solutions for different problems to the top authorities. Unfortunately, the priority of scientific services was neglected. And now in this set of reports we referred to the main problems which are to be solved by the government to achieve economic growth. “What is to be done?”- is the logical question to be held in the basis of economic development.

- Can such conferences with the participation of various bodies of the RA Government be regular?

- This conference was the first step to establish the ties with the new authorities. We have made an arrangement to make the conferences regular and if the matters go on as we plan, we will have a few meetings a year.
Besides, after the parliamentary elections we are going to work out the program of long-term development and we have already made an arrangement in this regard.

- Mr. Khacahtryan, can it be claimed that this conference aimed to restate the mutually beneficial ties between science and government?

- We have spoken many times about the ties between science, economics and government. The faculty effectively cooperates with the Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen of Armenia organizing periodically round-table discussions to discuss the problems existing in business environment. The problems are brought to economic-academic field where we analyze them to contribute to economic progress. So, during one of the meetings we came to a conclusion that the new government needs scientific service or at least, to hear out the opinions of economists. And we initiated this conference and were happy when the acting Prime minister accepted our behest.

-Can such meetings be of continuative character?

- The Government is willing to make such meeting regular. The acting Prime minister suggested holding the next meeting on a non-working day so that he was able to have more time for the discussions and take more active part in them. If we are able to choose the priority tasks for the given period the research made by our scientists will have a practical significance.

- Was the presentation of the book with such themes purposeful for the time when the chart of the RA economic growth during the recent years was published, and to put it mildly, it wasn’t encouraging?

- No, it was coincidence. We started to think about the book in September. At the beginning of autumn, we were engaged in revelation and analysis of different problems hindering economic development. And then it was decided to have the collection of reports.

- Is it possible that in the future the scientific sphere will become an institute serving the RA Government?

- Generally, the scientific service requires financial resources. Currently it is too early t o s peak about creating such a structure as via such meetings the Government has to make sure that such financial costs are effective. I think that at least within a year, we, as the representatives of the academic sphere, will be able to prove that our research and analysis will be acceptable. A tighter cooperation can be spoken of only when the Government adopt them and get certain results.