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  • Compromise With Oligopoly?

    COMPROMISE WITH OLIGOPOLY?
    James Hakobyan

    Lragir.am
    23/12/09

    A regular official of the World Bank, this time, the head of the
    Yerevan office Aristomene Varudakis, voices about the problem of the
    Armenian oligopolies. It has become an ordinary thing. International
    financial structures give loans to Armenia always reminding that
    there is such a problem which creates obstacles for the Armenian
    economy to develop.

    At the same time, the same structures do not give up feeding the
    same oligopoly system with loans realizing that the loans promote
    the preservation of the current system. If these loans lack, the
    government will be obliged to divide its internal resources more
    optimally in order to avoid social shakes. So, the international
    financial structures could in reality affect the actions of the
    government allocating loans on different conditions or preconditions.

    On the other hand, if the Armenian government leads fair and effective
    economic and political activities and uses the home resources with the
    maximum optimality, the necessity for loans will sharply decline. In
    this case, the work of international structures in Armenia will become
    less, as well as Armenia's role will drop. If the government works
    effectively and optimally, it will not need the regular assistance
    of heads of international representative offices in Armenia. In other
    words, there will be no need for the heads of those offices to state
    regularly that the economic policy of the Armenian government is
    unique, its anti-crisis program is the best, etc.

    If the government works well, the society will appreciate that work.

    And if the society appreciates that work the government will not need
    others to evaluate. This is a simply described but quite a real chain.

    And naturally, the question occurs whether the international financial
    structures are sincere when dwelling on the necessity to struggle
    against oligopolies and the provision of a competitive field in
    Armenia. The result of that struggle is that the role of those
    organizations in Armenia will decrease which is very high now. The
    lowest official of an international organization is received in
    Armenia as a king because the lowest circumstance may affect the
    decision of allocating a loan or of assessing as high the work of
    the Armenian government.

    But, international financial organizations do not have to care for
    the practical steps aimed at solving the issues of oligopolies and
    competitiveness in Armenia. They have stated with the lips of a regular
    official who visited Armenia that it is the problem of the Armenian
    government. But the point is in this case, that the international
    structures with their activities do not promote the settlement of
    this issue which they do not have to do, but they even promote the
    crystallization of the system of oligopoly and monopoly.

    Perhaps, this is the problem. Of course, they allocate a loan to
    Armenia explaining that the society needs the expenditure. But at
    the same time, they seem not to care at all for the effectiveness
    of the loans as well as for the fact that the government uses their
    appraisals as a propaganda shield to communicate with the society.

    Overall, an image seems to be present when the international structures
    fit into the same logic of the Armenian oligopoly system, they found
    the optimal way of communication with the system. When they dwell on
    the need to change the system or to reform it, they prove the fact
    that they fit into the logic of the system. The system itself thinks
    about the need to fight against oligopolies much. But almost nothing
    is changed.
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