Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attended the opening ceremony of the annual conference of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The Prime Minister made a speech in which he specifically stated:

"Honorable lady president of EBRD, honorable heads of delegations, dear attendees, I welcome holding the annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in the Republic of Armenia. We are honored to host this prestigious European structure, of which Armenia is a member, and we highly value the partnership.

The economy of the Republic of Armenia has experienced a significant rise in recent years. Since the People's Nonviolent Velvet Revolution of 2018, Armenia's economy has grown by almost 30 percent. State budget revenues increased by more than 91 percent, and about 200,000 jobs were created, which means an increase of about 37 percent in the total number of jobs. The average nominal wage has increased by about 87 percent compared to 2017, and the GDP per capita has almost doubled.

 

And consider that during this time, we also survived the Covid epidemic, a 44-day war, a humanitarian crisis and the deportation of more than 100 thousand Armenians from Nagorno Karabakh, the occupation of more than 200 square kilometers of sovereign territories of the Republic of Armenia, internal political and regional escalations. But thanks to the above-mentioned economic indicators, we were able to face all the mentioned challenges. I must note, however, that the mentioned economic indicators were recorded precisely because of the changes brought by the People's nonviolent Velvet Revolution of 2018 and the government's non-deviation from the course of widespread reforms.

Only after the revolution did all business people in Armenia have the opportunity to conduct economic activities freely and without restrictions. Until then, the most profitable branches of the economy in the Republic of Armenia were quotas in a shadowy way, and the import and export of many products was not possible without the permission of the political authorities.

Since 2018, these phenomena have been eradicated from Armenia, and now, in our country, all those people with the necessary skills, abilities, and desires can make a profit. Thanks to these people, the economy has developed, state budget revenues have increased, and these people are the locomotive of our country's development.

Economic growth is, of course, influenced by various factors. But in Armenia, the economic growth rate is, by and large, directly proportional to the course of democratic reforms. We have significantly reduced the shadow and are relentlessly fighting corruption. In Transparency International's Global Index of Corruption Perceptions, the Republic of Armenia has progressed by 45 points since 2018, moving from 107th place to 62nd place.

 

As a result of all these developments, the potential of Armenia's economy has increased significantly, and the realization of this potential is a new challenge for our country because the proper realization of this potential is of the utmost importance from the point of view of the future development of our country. To solve this problem, we imagine three key things to do—education sector reforms, institutional capacities development, and peace agenda implementation.

We are at the most active stage of improving content and physical infrastructure in education. We have adopted the new preschool and general education standards and started the teacher certification process; one critical goal is to double teachers' salaries through qualification verification.

Also, to ensure access to education in the entire republic's territory, we have constructed 500 kindergartens and 300 schools. By the way, on the way to implementing this project, we often felt institutional capacity gaps in the education sector and the public and private sectors. In any case, compared to 2017, the budgetary financing of the education sector in 2024 has more than doubled; more specifically, it has increased by 119 percent.

Science funding has increased by 147 percent compared to 2017, and even here, the process of sometimes tripling scientists' salaries is underway.

In this context, we attach particular importance to reforms in professional education and training and higher education. We are in the active stage of discussions of the Academic City project. The idea is to build an Academic City from scratch, which will become the country's university and IT center and a favorite place for intellectual entertainment. I want to draw the attention of investors to this project and the preparation of the master plan, which will be completed soon.

Reforms in education are essential for us because a new quality of education is necessary to ensure our country's further progress. Education is also a tool to ensure democracy, anti-corruption practices, and institutional capacity building. After all, people work around all these agendas, and the more highly qualified specialists there are, the easier it is to implement any, even the most ambitious projects.

However, the idea is not only that the next generation will have a much higher level of education and be more competitive in the global and local labor markets, but it will also make our economy more competitive. The problem is that during the reforms of the education sector, we also learn, and in general, our strategic concept of the education sector is to make education a lifelong process and a state ideology. As I have already said, on the way to implementing the reform and development agenda, we often feel the gaps in our educational system and have entrenched attitudes towards education, both in the public and private sectors.

Today, the private sector also needs highly qualified specialists, often required to reduce production costs, enter new markets, and develop production and work standards. Of course, the government implements programs aimed at all this, but our ability to execute and improve these programs also needs to be developed. Development is only possible with education and learning.

Creativity change is only possible with learning. I have already talked about the peace agenda. Still, it is impossible to live peacefully without learning because some countries in our region, for example, Armenia and Azerbaijan, do not have the experience and knowledge of peaceful coexistence. They have been in conflict since the first days of independence. Beyond political negotiations and principles of peace, there is a vital prerequisite: learning to live peacefully, which is a complicated process because, I repeat, neither we nor Azerbaijan knows what it is or looks like. , in the case of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Armenia, living peacefully with Azerbaijan is an unfamiliar phenomenon.

What you don't know brings uncertainties, concerns, and tensions, which you understandably formulate and perceive based on your historical experience, and historical experience says that this is impossible.

This is where the need to learn comes in because humanity's historical experience should have convinced humankind that flying into space is impossible. It was only possible once humanity started learning to fly into space, and now you won't surprise anyone by flying into space.

This happened after humanity learned to develop tools that made what previously seemed impossible possible. People were burned at the stake during that learning, but the globe did not stop spinning, and the learning process did not stop.

In the case of Armenia and Azerbaijan, we also need tools to learn to live peacefully. One of those tools is the "Crossroads of Peace" project proposed by the government; this project does not only apply to Armenia and Azerbaijan, but if we look at it in this context, one of the essential points is that Armenia and Azerbaijan open for each other highways, railways, pipelines through each other's territory, electricity transmission the possibility of laying lines, cables, based on respect for each other's territorial integrity, sovereignty, jurisdiction, on the principle of equality and reciprocity. These principles for the opening of regional communication channels were agreed on July 15, 2023, in Brussels at a meeting with the participation of the President of Azerbaijan, myself, and the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and published by the latter.

On October 6, 2022, in Prague, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to recognize each other's territorial integrity based on the Alma-Ata Declaration 1991. That declaration was signed by the 12 republics of the former Soviet Union to record that first, the Soviet Union ceased to exist, and at that moment, the existing administrative borders between the Soviet republics became state borders because the Soviet republics became independent states.

On October 6, 2022, in Prague, through the mediation of French President Emmanuel Macron and European Council President Charles Michel, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed that the Alma-Ata Declaration should be the basis of distinction between the two countries.

The demarcation process between Armenia and Azerbaijan has started these days and should become one of the tools that will teach Armenia and Azerbaijan to live peacefully.

Dear President of the EBRD, Heads of Delegations, and Attendees Thank you for your attention. I wish you success at the Annual Meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development."

Odile Renaud-Basso, President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, also delivered a speech at the conference.