Tagged: economy
the difference
The picture shows how I see my country and my country’s neighbor through a prism of a) corruption b) freedom of speech and c) political prisoners.
Many people compare Armenia and Georgia nowadays, some say it’s better there or here, however one needs to actually say what exactly is better or worse. Any country has problems and benefits. Let’s analyze this.
Corruption:
My impression of Georgia – corruption in police and judicial system is extremely minimized. Georgians say it does not exist at all, (which is a strange thing to claim, as even French and Americans accept it exists in France and USA). However even minimized corruption brings trust, investors’ money and jobs. Minimum corruption in police and courts brings order and rule of law.
In Armenia the picture is different, police and courts are corrupt. They sometimes don’t even know how to deal with cases without guidelines from bosses, bribes and relationship. Of course, the level of corruption is not the one witnessed in Azerbaijan or Uzbekistan, but still, corruption is corruption.
Freedom of speech:
Neither Armenia nor Georgia has this. Even though opposition in both countries gathers wherever and whenever it wants and expresses opinions freely. Opposition in both countries has access to print media (owns newspapers) and Internet, but not to public radio or TV.
Public servants in both countries always have pro-governmental views. You will not find oppositional figure working as minister, deputy minister, head of department, head of unit in Armenia or Georgia. And not only because the governments are not ready to share the power, but also because the opposition will consider the guy a “betrayer”. This is a matter of political maturity of countries.
Political prisoners:
Having strong police Georgia risks to transform into police state. People are afraid. The country has more than 100 political prisoners as of today. The existence of political prisoners brings the neutrality of Georgia’ courts and judicial system into question.
Armenia is the only country in the region that has no political prisoners as of today. Actually, a wider region is meant here, including Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran, Ukraine, Belarus, Central Asia and Turkey.
13 practical steps to win elections in 2012
13 practical tips for parties running for Armenian Parliament (National Assembly) in 2012
As very soon parties running for Armenian Parliament will start bribing media, marketing their successes and filming touching but irrelevant clips instead of providing clear, precise, specific, measurable and time bound steps and targets, I think it’s time to share some tips and ideas that can help any party win, but what’s more important, they can help the country.
Therefore, here are 13 practical and free tips on what to include in economic part of Parliament 2012 campaign. These steps do not hurt the economy of the country but make it prosper. They are social-oriented, progressive, long-term, sustainable, specific and measurable.
1. Tax-free all Diaspora Armenians investing in Armenia for a period of more than 3 years and ensuring jobs for at least 15 people with minimum salary of US$ 750/month for each employee.
2. Tax-free all foreign investors investing in Armenia for a period of more than 5 years and ensuring jobs for at least 165 people with minimum salary of US$ 650/month for each employee.
3. Tax-free importing (customs taxes and fees) any food production equipment given that a) equipment is new, unused and of most recent technological standards, b) engages at least 7 employees to run.
4. Tax-free for 3 years and offer co-investment (as government share) of at least 20% (but not more than 49%) if any of “Fortune 50″ IT companies invests in Armenia.
5. Tax-free any internationally or locally patented know-how for 5 years, given that “country of origin” of final produced goods and services will be made in Armenia and production will start in 3 months after successful patenting.
6. Offer to co-invest (as government share) at least 30% (but not more than 49%) in any new IT company, given that a) the company shows successful sales of its products or services for at least 6 months, b) company sells produced goods or services to EU or USA.
7. Demand by law to seal/mark “Made in Armenia” on any product made in Armenia.
8. As the state never trained its ministries and other state institutions on how they should spend public (taxpayer’s) money, train public servants who procures using state funds on how to procure using state funds.
9. Reduce road transit fees for logistics from Iran through Armenia to Georgia (or further) for 40%.
10. Put a minimum annual trade threshold for a newly built tax-free zone at the airport. (Example: “Dear airport, you remain tax-free zone for the next year if you trade at least EUR xxx,xxx,xxx annually”). Don’t mix up with actual duty free zone in the airport.
11. Publicly auction any new land provided by Yerevan municipality for commercial or residential construction by advertising the auction in official newspaper (“Հայաստանի Հանրապետություն”) and Public TV at least 5 weeks before the auction. Make the actual auction electronic and live webcast it on municipality’s website.
12. Companies employing 20,000 or more people with a minimum salary equaling US$ 390/month do not pay taxes for their lifetime.
13. The biggest employer and the biggest taxpayer of the country can address Parliament once a year with 30 minutes speech.
I know that for our political parties these points are hard to digest and for some of them they are even hard to simply understand, however I very much hope some progressive parties will be smart enough to include them in their 2012 Parliament campaign.
That’s the ticket to win the elections, and if a single company employing 20,000 people appears in Armenia in upcoming years – that’s the ticket to win many elections to come.
“Good artists copy, great artists steal” said Picasso. So please feel free to steal my ideas and include them in your Parliament 2012 campaign.
