Moreover, in Vache Gabrielyan’s assessment, the situation might have been worse, if Armenia refused to engage with EEU.
According to M.Apresyan, it’s anticipated to establish an interdepartmental working group and discuss the issues, develop proposals and submit them to the government. According to him, they met representatives of tour agencies and hotels.
“Firstly, there should be political will. There is an option—regime change, and new authorities which declare fight against corruption as their chief purpose, not always keep their promises after coming to power. The other option: current authorities realize that this shouldn’t last long, and it would be preferable to have pressure from the bottom, and realizing seriousness and complexity of the situation, and that there is threat to state’s existence, they try to change something.”
Upon rough calculations, goods costing about USD 2 million are daily being imported to Armenia. And this means, suspension lasting for days, and, moreover, for weeks, may seriously impact on exchange rate demand and appreciate Armenian dram.
““Armenia” has obtained a certificate by the Ministry of Economy, which means, it may already launch trade transfers,” Chobanyan said.
Armenia has produced Eurobonds, and this shift will leave its trail if we try to reproduce them, and we will mandatorily produce them to clear off the previous one. For instance, “Mudis” states that indicator of Armenia’s loan management is rather high, however, regarding budget deficit it’s stated that it increases our risks. And budget deficit isn’t a loan management, it’s management of our expenditures and incomes, and there are some problems here. We succeeded this year to confirm the budget a bit lower than previous year, we restrained budget appetite, but it wasn’t enough.
In case the Government abolishes customs duties for the implementation of investment programs, the investments of companies will reach 50 million USD. Up till now 6 organizations have been exempted from customs duties. As a result, 550 jobs have been created, Minister of Economy Artsvik Minasyan announced after the Cabinet meeting.
The Company anticipates to enlarge export mainly to Russia, EEU member countries, the USA, Canada, EU member countries, UAE, Hong Kong, Mexico, Iraq, Israel, providing annual export volume within USD 9.5 million in near future.
Interview with Jan van Bilsen, IFC Regional Manager for the South Caucasus
“The Armenia Investment Climate Reform Project, implemented by the World Bank Group’s Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice, continues to provide advice to the government on investment policy and inspections reforms. The project is built on IFC’s previous Investment Climate Reform Project (2011-2014), which helped the government of Armenia design and adopt reforms in taxes, trade logistics, inspections, and food safety.”
