300 Billion Dram Frozen in Armenia, Says Prime Minister

Today, 300 billion dram is in a frozen status in Armenia. This was stated by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during a year-end meeting with representatives of the American Chamber of Commerce in Armenia.

“Half of that money, 150 billion dram, is frozen due to a formal court dispute. The person who is supposed to pay that money to the state acknowledges this fact, but since there is no court ruling, it is impossible to transfer that money to the state,” he said.

According to Pashinyan, sometimes financial-related court disputes can take years because the courts are overloaded. On the other hand, he noted that 150 billion is not a small amount for Armenia. “This means that the money exists, there are also investors, but there is no opportunity to use that money,” he added.

“The judicial system is unable to adequately serve the economy. That is why we are taking steps to remove monetary disputes from the judicial process and submit them to notarized examination,” he stated.

Referring to creating an investment environment, Pashinyan emphasized the need for a setting in which becoming wealthy does not signify wrongdoing. In other words, it should be possible to accumulate wealth through fair and honest means.

It should be noted that just on September 25 in Los Angeles, during a meeting with the Armenian community, Pashinyan mentioned that investigators are heavily burdened during criminal investigations, with an average of 30-40 criminal cases per investigator. While discussing funds paid to the state budget within the framework of criminal cases, he pointed out that former Minister of Environment Aram Harutyunyan, who is accused of large-scale bribery, has left Armenia, taking advantage of his parliamentary status.