By Hakob Badalyan

http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/comments16870.html

Listening to representatives of international organizations who describe the economic benefits Armenia will have after the opening of the Armenian and Turkish border you think that either those people are mildly speaking naïve or they take the Armenian citizens mildly speaking for naïve people. Many announced about the paradisiacal effect of the opening of the border- the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, as well as the Western countries engaged in the Armenian and Turkish process.

Those foreign officials, having dealt with Armenia for a long time, being well informed about the economic-political values and their bearers, imagining very well the mechanism of formation of the Armenian government, the world vision of the heads of that mechanism, their ideas on the state citizens, laws and rights, freedoms, are supposed not to dwell on any paradisiacal effect.

The Armenian economy fully belongs to the government. If an enterpriser is not in the field of the government political preferences, serious problems for their activities appear. There is no need to bring examples for the international organizations because the regular visits of their various missions must have enough means to imagine the whole situation. The zero level of competition in the Armenian economic field is not determined by the circumstance that the Armenian and Turkish border is closed but by the will of the government. It is the government that has divided the economy between monopolists making them shareholders and being engaged in business with the help of them.

Can any “emissary” who visits Armenia and advertises the opening of the Armenian and Turkish border explain how it will eliminate the link between the government and the business in Armenia? Which is going to be the mechanism forbidding the government to share the economic profit gotten from the opening of the Armenia-Turkey border the way the current economic interest is shared? At least, so far, no one has presented any mechanism which is going to change the quality and the way of dividing the economic interest in case of the opening of the Armenian and Turkish border.

The main problem hindering the development of the Armenian economy is this: a really independent economy with competitive conditions is to be formed enabling the citizens to decide the amount and the level of development in accordance with their professional skills, education and abilities. Otherwise, goods and services may cheapen and the export may increase. This is not the main obstacle for the development of Armenia’s economy and civilization. Citizens of course may be given some “fish” not to be hungry but the essential is to give them the possibility “to fish”. No international professional has explained or is explaining how the opening of the Armenian and Turkish border will solve this issue if in Armenia it is the government and not the law to decide the limit of possibilities of citizens. It is difficult to explain and for international experts it is easier to excite the Armenian citizens with “cheap sausages” considering it enough for Armenian citizens.