Ruben Vardanian: Survival model prevents changes in situation

‘Despite the job shortage in Armenia, it is extremely difficult for us to find professionals ready to dedicate themselves to projects and work overtime. Yet many people are ready to leave for Moscow or elsewhere and do less pleasant work there,” Co-Head of Sberbank-CIB and Board Chairman of AmeriaBank Ruben Vardanian said in an interview with Mediamax news agency.

“I should note that a slightly distorted perception of success prevails in Armenian society today: those who have money without working, rather than those who work and earn much, are considered successful. A diploma rather than knowledge is of importance. Such a substitution of ideas is dispiriting. Personal and job relations are also mixed here. As a result, a discussion of this or that business problem often becomes a row or picking each other to pieces,” Vardanian said.

“There is another aspect as well: the richest people of the country are not the largest taxpayers, while their business is built on their close connections with the authorities and not on their talent or intellect. There are different rules of game for different groups, and those rules are determined by one’s close connections with this or that circle, rather than by talent or ability to work. Of course, there are also good success stories. I am glad that some of the Armenian businessmen participate in our projects,” Ruben Vardanian noted.
In his words, the reason is that people have no confidence in the future. “Armenia today adheres to a model of survival. When you live in such conditions, you don’t think about long-term prospects. Even the elite lacks a “long” horizon of planning, so the most important decisions are being taken without thinking about the future, we live only here and now. This is especially obvious in urban development: a lot of high rises are being built in Armenia, especially in the centers of cities, but at the cost of quality, let alone the needed infrastructure. There are also issues of ideology, esthetics, and finally, the suitability of such houses for people, especially children, but nobody is concerned. Unfortunately, residents’ love for their city, their country is not visible now”.

Ruben Vardanian expressed an opinion that in order to change the situation, it is necessary to expand the radius of trust and the horizon of planning, but the current model of survival hinders such steps.

“It is the problem of society, not only the authorities. Figuratively, people built a small stall, then they add a veranda to it, then a balcony, then a workshop appears instead of that and it grows into an empire that continued to be made of patches. In the last few centuries the Armenians lived under the rule of strangers and for that reason Armenians are good mediators and deputy managers, but they seldom become heads of large corporation. The survival model is everywhere, whereas a prosperity model that requires ambitions and risk is still absent,” Vardanian said.