Armenian Deputy PM attends Ministerial Segment of the UN ECOSOC Special High-Level Meeting
On April 20, Mr Vache Gabrielyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for International Economic Integration and Reforms of Armenia participated at the UN Economic and Social Council Special High-level Meeting with the international financial institutions held in New York.
The meeting under the overall theme “Coherence, coordination and cooperation in the context of financing for sustainable development and the post-2015 development agenda” was attended by the UN Secretary-General, the President of the UN Economic and Social Council, Deputy Prime-Minister of Turkey, Ministers of Finance, Development and International Cooperation of Colombia, Sweden, Netherlands, Ethiopia, Tunisia, as well as the EU Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development. High-level representatives of a number of international financial institutions, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development also attended the meeting.
In his statement, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for International Economic Integration and Reforms Gabrielyan identified major global trends and developments of the evolving public financing landscape, focusing on the case of the low-middle income countries. He also presented Armenia’s experience of working on public-private solutions to infrastructure projects with the help of the IFIs. In this context and in light of the structural constraints and developmental challenges facing Armenia, the importance of efficient use of existing infrastructure, as well as the central role of mobility and transportation received specific focus in his statement.
In his remarks, Deputy Prime-Minister Gabrielyan expressed concern that an interstate railway connecting Gyumri in Armenia and Kars in Turkey is not being used in the interests of sustainable development of the region, at the same time noting that linking this behavior to historical facts, namely, the Armenian Genocide, or Turkey’s sponsorship of Azerbaijan’s aggressive stance, is counterproductive.
