‘Isolate Eduard Aghajanyan’: Pashinyan jokes after being told his chief of staff feels sick
At a cabinet meeting on Thursday, Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan expressed his joy at seeing the government members, expressing hope that they are healthy and resolute.
Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan, sitting close to Pashinyan, pointed to Eduard Aghajanyan, the chief of staff of the prime minister's office, saying with a smile on his face that he is feeling sick.
"Isolate!" Pashinyan joked.
The prime minister emphasized that at this crucial stage Armenia should move forward by taking reasonable steps, stressing Armenia, Artsakh and the Armenian people must grow stronger as a result of the coronavirus-related crisis.
He informed that the government discussed anti-crisis economic tactics and strategies on Wednesday.
"I want to reiterate that we have not set and will not set a task before ourselves to restore the pre-crisis economic situation, no matter how good that situation was in Armenia. We have set a task to be guided by much greater ambitions while positioning ourselves towards the post-crisis situation,” he said, stressing the need to implement development programs, focus more on the reform agenda adopted by the government, as well as provide major support to the economy at this stage.
Also, Pashinyan said that "effective" and "targetted" social programs will be implemented in Armenia.
"We will launch an emergency aid package of around 25 billion drams in support to businesses, another 25 billion drams of social assistance package will be made ready to be used, if necessary. A fund of 80 billion drams, aimed at reshaping the economy in line with the post-crisis situation, will also be set up," he said.