Entrepreneur and benefactor Ruben Vardanyan said that we need to “unconditionally support the President and Prime Minister in their efforts”.

“Nothing will be achieved without that support,” Ruben Vardanyan said in the exclusive interview to Mediamax.

“We have to admit that the appointment of a new person to the position of Prime Minister offended a large group of people. If the model begins to change, the number of these people will grow. These processes started a year ago, when Samvel Karapetyan purchased the Electric Networks of Armenia. The company, which for years had been unprofitable and constantly demanded higher tariffs, in one year turned into an efficient and profitable enterprise. This means that some people lost their source of income, or their expenses increased and their businesses ceased to be profitable. Imagine what happens to them if they pay all their taxes and compete fairly on the market. We will face a situation where society will have more and more people losing their jobs or income sources. At the same time, the new Government of Armenia has a tough task at hand in proving to people that the Government is efficient. The task is further complicated by the fact that reforms, which begin with very painful changes, should be carried out several months prior to the elections, and that their results will be seen only years down the line,” Ruben Vardanyan said.

Co-founder of IDeA Foundation also talked in rather great detail about current economic and business situation in Armenia during the interview.

“You can stay afloat for a while by building expensive restaurants without proper ventilation systems or grand hotels with one elevator, producing fake brandy or re-exporting Turkish tomatoes as Armenian, but eventually this will catch up with you,” Ruben Vardanyan observed.

You can read the full interview here.