Government of Armenia set to cut New Year Holidays
YEREVAN, April 15. /ARKA/. The Armenian government has approved today a package of legislative proposals designed to amend the law on holidays and memorable dates, which call for cutting the New Year's holidays. The only member of the government who voted against these changes was the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Mesrop Arakelyan.
New Year holidays in Armenia are celebrated from December 31 to January 7 inclusive. Moreover, January 6th is celebrated in Armenia as Christmas, and January 7th - as the Day of Remembrance of the Dead.
According to the changes, proposed by the Ministry of Economy, the New Year's holidays are to last two days only - December 31 and January 1. The January 6 (Christmas) is also proposed to be day off. The rest of the days - 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th of January are to be work days.
Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan, the most ardent advocate of the changes, said the present-day Armenia, the people interested in its future, entrepreneurs, businesses and the entire economy cannot afford such a luxury as 10-day long New Year and Christmas holidays.
In his words, if the proposed changes are approved, Armenia’s GDP will grow by 88 billion drams or 1.2%, the volume of gross output will grow by 123 billion drams, including 47.5 billion dram growth in trade, 35.4 billion dram growth in industrial output and 33.9 billion dram growth in services.
In his words, the proposed changes aim to protect workers' rights so that they can work productively and rest for as long as required by law and be paid for it.
In this regard, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said: “We propose that this issue be discussed long before the New Year in order to understand what kind of public consent can be formed, since this is a very delicate, but also very important issue, involving not only economic, but also health issues, since the big question is whether the people enjoy this prolonged 10-day New Year holidays or acquire new health problems.'
For his part, Minister of Finance Atom Janjughazyan suggested showing a rational approach and not getting carried away with indicators.
“You need to keep a balance. We can say that it is necessary not only to shorten the New Year holidays, but also to extend the working week from 5 to 6 days and thus say that more GDP will be generated, but this is the wrong approach. It is necessary to find the right balance, since it is not a fact that 88 billion drams of GDP will be generated in 5 days, since there are some risks that affect the indicators, ”Janjughazyan said. –0--