Azerbaijan being the best target
The World Economic Forum has given a reason to the government to praise its policy by advancing Armenia with ten points in the list of 144 countries, placing Armenia in the 82nd place.
We believe that this good news will be used by the government for reference in speeches. Oppositionists will say that there are shortcomings and omissions in that report.
However, this kind of reports are not essential for us to understand whether we are compatible or no. Maybe with other calculations we would be in the 62nd place instead of the 82nd. However, the most important point is that we continue this way, we will never be on the same line with the compatible economies of the world. Our advanced places are limited and the biggest goal is to pass Azerbaijan in this list (which is in the 46th place in the list). Simple logic says that our competition potential and prospects are limited. In order to be highly competitive there must be three conditions available. In order to be compatible a country must be democratic (like Switzerland or Sweden) or lawful (like Singapore), or rich of natural resources (such as Qatar or Azerbaijan).
The last factor is missing in our country. However, the first two conditions are realistic.
Democracy has direct connection with development and competition. There are many publications about it but there is no need to discuss them; it is enough only to look at the justice and state administration system.
Everything starts from the point that people initially tend not to work. Many people want to sit in an armchair, drink coffee and play games at work; do everything other than the real work. In Armenia’s private sector it doesn’t happen because when businessmen pay. They expect to see results. People are made to work and generate results not because of hard working character (as we were taught in school) but the sense of responsibility and fright to lose the job. What will happen if this responsibility and fright disappear? People simply will not work. The more people there are like this in a company, the worse the company’s situation will be.
In the state system the situation is just like that; people don’t fear to lose their jobs and do not have the sense of responsibility. The government is not afraid not to be re-elected in case if it doesn’t work in a duly manner. Even it is the vice versa; the poorer people are, the easier it will be to bribe them. This is what it means to have lack of democracy. In that case the situation of the country and economy depends only on the wish of the authorities and whether they think about the country or no.
However, courtesy only does not mean anything. In many situations it is not even enough. Because of the internal political intrigues the employees and people of the government are looking for opportunities to join different teams and are busy with political issues instead of doing their job. The reason is the fact that here issues are not addressed in a democratic manner or in the framework of the law, but according to different rules. It is said that the potential of the human brain is unlimited but people are using only a part thereof. These people are using that small part of their brain for other problems. The level of efficiency of state institutions is very low, which in its turn affects the economy.
This means that as far as the problems with democracy and law are not solved, as far as there is not even a single fair election in Armenia, we cannot be in the first lines with the indicator of competitiveness. We cannot be that advanced unless oil is found in Sevan lake.
