Hrand Bagratyan, a former prime minister of Armenia, doesn’t put much faith in the ruling Republican Party slogan “Let us believe in order to change”.

“It may be a good slogan but I’m a rational person. The ANC will soon publish its major thesis “Armenia with 500 Businesspeople”. This is something tangible. The Republican Party’s slogan sounds like a promise of love,” Bagratyan told reporters today.

A few days ago, Bagratyan issued a blistering critique of President Sargsyan’s address at the Republican Party’s 13th congress regarding the economic situation in Armenia.

Bagratyan continued to point out the shortcomings of the Republican Party’s economic policies at today’s press conference.

“We’re not just talking about wages and pensions. Today, Azerbaijan’s annual budget is around $18 billion and Armenia’s is $2.5 billion. People may say that this is a decent increase over the 1996 budget of $350 million when I was prime minister. But then, Azerbaijan’s budget was $700 million. Also, Georgia’s budget was less than ours. Today, it stands at $4.5 billion. Our country is disappearing. One war and it will all be over,” Bagratyan warned.

When asked about petrodollars as contributing to Azerbaijan’s budget, Bagratyan said these revenues don’t get fed into the budget.

“In addition to the $18 billion budget, Baku has a stabilization fund of $35 billion,” said the former prime minister.

Bagratyan argued that the economic crisis can no longer be pointed to as the reason for Armenia’s economic woes and said that the country must post GDP growth of at least 7.4% in order for there to be any reserve funds to stem the exodus of people leaving Armenia.

The economist proposed that Armenia use its revenues from the transportation sector to sterilize the country of economic monopolies.

He pointed to Samvel Aleksanyan, an MP and leading businessman in Armenia, who owns the NataliPharm chain of drugstores.

“Let me make this plain. Aleksanyan has little in the way of business acumen,” said Bagratyan. “The main reason why he’s succeeded is that there’s no competition in Armenia. Medicines cost three times as much in Armenia as in Europe. Aleksanyan isn't the businessman who must feed Armenia.”