YEREVAN. – At Thursday’s meeting, the Armenian government made a decision to redistribute the 2020 state budget and allocate funds to the Ministry of High Technological Industry to provide a grant of 90 million drams without a tender for the manufacturing of ventilators in the country.

The Minister of High Technological Industry, Hakob Arshakyan, presented the issue, noting that within the framework of the fight against the novel coronavirus, their ministry had announced a process of professional research and design of the idea of manufacturing ventilators, and 300 respective applications and proposals were received.

"As a result of this decision, we will have the opportunity to meet the domestic demand for ventilators, assist the healthcare system," Arshakyan said, in particular.

The minister also noted that it will be possible to be ready for production and have working equipment in 4-6 months. "We will have the opportunity to manufacture 40-50 devices a month," he added. "This is also an opportunity for Armenian engineering companies to be able to enter the market for the manufacturing of medical devices."

In his turn, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan noted that this is a very important project.