The competitive edge of Armenia’s economy is somewhat due to the limited resources and unfavorable geopolitical realities of the country.
President Serzh Sargsyan, who is on a working visit in the US, on Monday stated the aforementioned in his remarks at the Armenia Investment Forum, in New York City.
Sargsyan addressed at the first—and plenary—session of this event. He reflected on Armenia’s economic and political priorities, accomplishments ever since 25 years of independence, competitive edge and investment opportunities, ongoing major reforms, favorable business climate, the ease of access to regional markets via Armenia, and its stable macroeconomic environment.
The President urged investors to use Armenia’s opportunities as a gateway to main regional markets.
Serzh Sargsyan also responded to queries posed by those in attendance.
The event brought together representatives of the leading companies in economy and international financial institutions, analysts, and around one hundred international investors.
“I am delighted to greet you all at this landmark event, which comes at a symbolic time for Armenia and Armenians around the globe. Having summed up 25 years of independence, Armenian nation continues to pave its way towards future. The past two and half decades have been challenging, yet equally rewarding. After 25 years of independence we look into the future with confidence, determined to build upon our achievements that we have attained through the hard work of our people and with the help of our friends and partners.
“It is no coincidence that Armenia as a gateway to major markets has been selected as a heading for this event: Armenia’s role as such had been determined at the time primordial, outlined by the history and geography of our land and the identity of its people. Situated at the crossroads between continents, Armenia has always bridged various civilizations, thus becoming a very important center for the cultural and trade exchanges. True to its role and given its historic experience, modern Armenia adheres to a strategy designed to build bridges among its major trading, economic and political partners.
“As any other country, Armenia has its own comparative advantages. Interestingly enough our comparative advantages as an economy to a certain extent grew out of our limited resources and disadvantageous geopolitical realities. A landlocked country with a small-size economy that had been inherently Soviet-styled, with no energy resources, and blockade imposed by some of our neighbors, we never surrendered to those impediments. Quite to the contrary, we took advantage of those to push the boundaries of our creativity and competitiveness. Thus, human capital has become the source our main wealth, efficiency has become our master tool and reconciling often opposing interests has become our lifestyle.
“Although the financial crises did not pass by Armenia, we made significant strides in building a knowledge-based society and the constant drive to embrace cutting-edge innovation have placed our country of just 3 million among technologically advanced nations. Notwithstanding the financial resources available to it, almost every single Armenian family strives to heavily invest in the education of their children. It is quite natural that for many years now our schoolchildren at the World Subject Olympiads win over 20 awards.
“Today we are leading the list of the ranks by countries for the young students per capita wining world prizes in mathematical Olympics. In the same vein, we have the highest number of Chess grand masters on per-capita basis. Incidentally, Armenia was the first country in the world that introduced chess in the school curriculum in order to promote strategic thinking among new generation.
“Another interesting example to that effect is the Tumo Center for Creative Technologies that provides secondary and high school students with an opportunity to convert their ideas into IT solutions and products.
“Luys Foundation was established upon our initiative back in 2009; since then it has provided with scholarships Armenian students around the globe to attend and study at the top-notch universities in order to make sure that Armenia keeps up with the developments of our times.
“Today, the availability of qualified workforce and a highly developed human capital brought fame to Armenia among those who seek accessible innovative IT solutions. We are becoming a desired destination for carrying out R&D and complex projects, as well as undertake the design and production of high value added, sophisticated products.
“To give more momentum to the development of Information and Communication Technologies we provide tax privileges to the start-ups exempting them from profit tax and levying only 10% tax on income. As a result in recent years we have seen 25% average increase in the field of ICT.
“Other than IT, Armenia has also been successful in the area such as medical and especially dental tourism, providing best money for quality services.
“Year in and year out we have been developing our capacity for providing high-quality education, which also create opportunities for foreign students to study in our country. A great example to that effect is the Dilijan International School, which makes part of the United World Colleges education network. It received students from about 60 countries, and some of them are from the most advanced ones,” the President specifically said.
