3 p.m.
During a press conference, Tigran Khachatryan, the Minister of Economy, gave a briefing about the implementation of the economic assistance packages aimed at mitigating the consequences of COVID-19. Khachatryan reminded that the first one is implemented with the collaboration of the banking system and is aimed at providing financial assistance to those companies that apply to banks for funding programs worth up to 500 million AMD. For this assistance program, the government support can be in three different forms: subsidies, co-financing and refinancing. Khachatryan explained that subsidizing the interest rate is possible if the companies use the acquired loans to cover specific expenses stipulated by the government. Those expenses include salaries, state taxes, purchase or import of raw materials, equipment (with the condition that the raw material will be used for production within the territory of Armenia) and rental fees. The amount of provided subsidies will vary depending on the specific expenses. For example, if the loan is used to pay salaries, then the interest rate will be fully subsidized, but if it is used to acquire equipment, only part of the interest rate will be subsidized. Similar to subsidies, the amount of co-financing will vary depending on how the loan will be used. During the past one month, 284 companies benefited from this assistance package, and loans with an overall value of 24.6 billion AMD have already been confirmed.

The second assistance package targets the agriculture sector and beneficiaries include resident economic entities or individuals with a good credit and tax record, as well as cooperative farms. Support is provided in the form of an interest rate subsidy, while for cooperative farms in the form of co-financing. Over 6,000 applications were approved as part of this assistance package.

The third assistance package targets small- and medium-sized business enterprises and is provided to those with a good credit and tax record. Companies that do not comply with this requirement but, as of December 31, 2019 did not have unpaid taxes, can also apply for this assistance package. Businesses in the processing industry, accommodation and catering, transportation and storage, tourism services or healthcare, with an annual turnover between 24 million to 500 million AMD in 2019 are eligible to apply. Applications have to be filed with the Investment Support Center of the Ministry of Economy. To date, the applications of 549 beneficiaries, with an overall value of 6.2 billion AMD, have been confirmed.

The fourth economic assistance package is aimed at encouraging the owners of those business enterprises who did not decrease the wages of their employees during the coronavirus. The government pledged to provide a one-time grant to all those enterprises, in the amount of the salary of every 5th employee. To date, the government has allocated 1.9 billion AMD for this program. Khachatryan stressed that the government considers all the recommendations that it receives from the private sector and makes amendments to the assistance packages accordingly.

11:00 a.m.
The discussions of the government’s proposal to make changes to Armenia’s 2020 state budget continued in the National Assembly. Atom Janjughazyan, the Minister of Finance, once again presented the main points of the proposed bill. He said that, if adopted, the bill will allow the government to use 150 billion AMD from the budget in order to mitigate the consequences of COVID-19. The bill will also give the government the opportunity to be more flexible when it comes to measures related to the pandemic. According to the existing regulations, if the government wants to make reallocations in the budget exceeding 3% of the total, the consent of the National Assembly is required. The proposed 150 billion AMD is 8.1% of the overall budget, and with the proposed changes can be reallocated without the consent of the Parliament. Concerns were raised by Members of Parliament that the proposed bill limits the powers of the National Assembly. The Minister reaffirmed that the need for the proposed changes occurred because of the spread of the pandemic and that the changes will be used during the pandemic. He went on to say that the government has no intentions to limit the powers of Parliament. The Standing Committee on Economic Affairs gave a positive assessment to the proposed changes. The bill was adopted with 101 voting in favor and 17 against.

During the second reading, Parliament adopted (87 in favor, 16 against and 16 abstentions) the government's proposal to make changes and amendments to the Law on the Legal Regime of the State of Emergency (SOE) and the Law on Normative Legal Acts. Parliament also passed (117 in favor and 2 abstentions) the government’s proposal to make changes and amendments to the Code on Labor and the Code on Administrative Offences.

11:00 a.m.
According to the Ministry of Health, 65 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed within the last 24 hours, bringing the total number to 1932; 34 patients have recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 900, there are 1000 active cases. The number of deaths stands at 30.