President Sargsyan tells how he recovered Armenia’s economy at the beginning of his tenure

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan talked about the country’s economic narrative under his leadership in an interview for a special edition of Gulf News newspaper and Global FDI Reports about Armenia.

“The beginning of my term as president coincided with a very difficult period in the economy. We felt the first shocks of the global financial and economic crisis at the end of 2008, but were able to consolidate our resources and develop an anti-crisis programme with the support of our allies and partners. By 2010 we were already able to register growth, but it was not enough. We wanted to transform that challenge into opportunities and re-emerge from the global crisis with a restructured economy”, he said.

The President said first, they wanted to give impetus to export-oriented sectors of the economy. To make that a reality, they made significant advances in improving Armenia’s business climate and re-energised dialogue tracks with the private sector.

“What matters most – and this has been our main narrative in the past decade – is to create a conducive environment for the knowledge-based economy, including the IT sector. We have enough to celebrate at this stage. We have around 600 IT companies in the Armenian market, mostly export-oriented, including branches of world giants, and they are staffed by around 20,000 young and entrepreneurial professionals who make a huge impact on our country – in terms of business, culture and society”, President Serzh Sargsyan said.