During a break in Armenian-Russian regional summit today in Yerevan, former Armenian Prime Minister Armen Darbinyan told reporters that the country’s economy has never been good in the past 24 years since independence and remains poor.

Darbinyan noted Armenia’s challenging geo-political situation as one of the main reasons for the poor economic state of affairs.

“The main reason is that the liberal economic model we tried to execute in the early 1990s naturally didn’t work. It didn’t due to the war and the post-war environment. Thus, we must try to solve the geo-political context and improve the situation. We must find consensual resolutions with our neighbors,” said Darbinyan.

When asked his opinion about a World Bank report noting Armenia’s economy as the most monopolized of post-Soviet and eastern European countries, Darbinyan said one could agree and disagree with its appraisal.

“What does monopolized mean? If we are referring to commerce, the development of sectors subject neither to manufacturing or technology, then perhaps, yes. But there is no monopolization in those sectors based on technology and technological progress, on knowledge. Nor can there be. That’s to say we must spur sectors that presume technological development,” said Darbinyan.

Talking about the monopolization of commerce, the former prime minister said that if Armenia continues to remain a nation of peddlers, buying cheap and selling expensive, this isn’t the path the country should take.

“I still think there are possibilities left for small scale trade. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be these markets, badly organized, that are taking us down the road to an Asian type of development,” said Darbinyan.

Instead, the former prime minister said that Armenia must become a manufacturing-export country.

Defending certain sector monopolies, Darbinyan gave the example of the importation of gasoline and diesel fuel, arguing that it is impossible to import less than 25,000 ton tanks and that only a few businesses can do so.

He said that the importation of diesel fuel must be monopolized, whether we like it or not, because there is no other option in Armenia given the blockade and the strategic amounts needed.

Darbinyan labeled such business as semi-government ones given the vital nature of such sectors.