The European Union and the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) started a project of technical assistance to small and medium businesses and business associations in Armenia, Ms Eva Maria Naher, head of the new SMEDA project, told reporters at the opening ceremony Friday.

The chief goal of the project is to empower SME associations to provide a wider array of quality services to their stakeholders. These may include both paid and free consulting and trainings, she said.

Another objective is to facilitate technology transfer to small and medium businesses.

“To make this possible, we are ready to work with different sectors and clusters. We want to highlight some of them, such as precision engineering, with some prospective companies in Armenia. But we are also exploring the field of clean tech: renewable energy, energy efficiency, waste management. We have not yet decided on exact sectors, but will make decisions over the next years.

Generally, we want to be as inclusive as possible. We don’t want to say “sorry, there’s no more room” if we see another partner that will benefit from our assistance,” she stressed.

The project, funded by the EU and implemented by the GIZ, will run from 2016 to 2019.