In its  Cabinet session Thursday, the Armenian government approved additional agreement No. 1 attached to the agreement between Armenia and the Eurasian Development Bank on the provision of a grant for the funding—from the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development—of the program to increase the level of preparedness for the COVID-19 epidemic in Armenia.

In the explanation of this decision, it is noted that aforesaid program funds (US$3 million) are spent in accordance with the program budget and procurement plan. Payments for signed and to be signed contracts are made in the national currency of Armenia, and within the framework of the program, calculation for the expenditure of funds in the currency of the grant (US dollars) is made at the exchange rate of the Central Bank of Armenia on the day preceding the date of the financial transaction.

Based on the fact that after the signing of the agreement, there was a high volatility of the exchange rate of the grant against the Armenian national currency—that is, considerable devaluation of the US dollar against the Armenian dram—in Armenia, which was not foreseen during the preparation of the agreement, as well as the fact that the implementation period of the program was extended by another year, there is a considerable risk of a lack of funds for one of the program categories and the need to use funds from another category.

Therefore, in order to optimize the use of the program's funds, they have started the process of signing the additional agreement No. 1 on the unification of categories, which will enable the activities planned by the program to be carried out on time and in full.