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On July 21 RA NA President Hovik Abrahamyan delivered a speech at the ongoing Third World Conference in Geneva, where speakers of parliaments and heads of international organizations of 160 countries took part. Addressing those present RA NA Speaker said:

“Dear Mr. President,

Fellow parliamentarians,

Ladies and gentlemen,

May I welcome you on this significant event, which is more than topical and thank the secretariat for the excellent organization of the conference.

The global financial crisis with its scale, geography and consequences revealed that the world economy faces a new challenge related to the development and introduction of more efficient mechanisms for the mutual integration of economic management, financial and production sectors and reflected the current globalization trends, which shows a tendency of increasing throughout the world.

In some countries the financial crisis also developed into a political one, when governments had to resign. This is coming to prove the need to restructure the regulatory framework of the global macroeconomic management and financial markets. There are fears of instability and uncertainty towards the future.

I strongly believe that we should do our utmost to raise public awareness, ensure the transparency of activity and fully implement the parliamentary oversight. As popular representatives we should operate the parliamentary machinery aimed at the increased oversight of the budget to be implemented by government, if need be, review the budgetary indicators.

At present large-scale debates are taking place as to the reform of the international financial architecture aimed at assuming responsibility for the activity by international financial institutions.

Despite the fact that the main responsibility to face the crisis lies basically with governments, the parliaments of our countries should play a crucial role and have the ability to take necessary decisions. These measures include the reduction of the negative social impact of the crisis on the unemployed and most vulnerable groups of the society.

Parliaments should also play a crucial role in giving legitimacy to the approved and often tough decisions that do not enjoy popularity and secure public support for these measures. Transparency and ability to conduct a dialogue with citizens are vital to political processes.

Among many other countries the financial and economic crisis greatly affected the Armenian economy, bringing about the need to solve additional structural, social, financial and management problems.

However the Armenian authorities do their utmost to reduce the negative impact of the crisis on the economy and living standards of the population. Even under these conditions the Armenian authorities did not cut the social expenditure, the funds allocated for housing construction in the disaster zone after the 1988 devastating earthquake were not reduced either.

The Armenian parliament and the government seek for a transparent activity. On 12 November 2008 the Armenian government submitted its anti-crisis programme to the parliament. The measures under this programme should mitigate the risks facing the economy as a result of the crisis, which are increased greatly by the on-going blockade of Armenia and its land-locked nature.

The Armenian National Assembly has had a major contribution to the mitigation of the impact of the financial crisis, and closely and efficiently co-operated with the Armenian President and government, made timely legislative amendments needed for the anti-crisis measures.

Dear colleagues,

It is obvious that the global economy requires not only a harmonization of the socio-economic policy throughout the world, but also global thinking and relevant actions. In their turn the latter require responsibility by all branches of power.

Such an authoritative organization as the Inter-Parliamentary Union has always been an independent structure committed to its ideals, and I believe it should play a decisive role in safeguarding democracy, fundamental human freedoms, the rule of law and deal with the numerous challenges facing the humankind in the 21^st century.

Over the past two and a half days we listened to the concerns of the leaders of parliaments of different countries on the financial and economic crisis, role of parliaments and many other issues. It is my strong belief that through joint efforts the world is capable of overcoming the current problems and move forward towards sustainable development and peaceful coexistence.”