YEREVAN. - The United States is among the largest foreign direct investors in Armenia, the U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills stated today at the meeting with the representatives of the American Chamber of Commerce in Armenia (AmCham).

“U.S. investment in Armenia got a real boost with ContourGlobal’s acquisition of the Vorotan Hydroelectric Cascade, a 250 million dollar deal that brings to Armenia the technical expertise and management techniques of one of America’s most innovative energy companies.

I want to emphasize that Contour Global made this investment, and received the support of the Armenian government, because it made good commercial sense. Now, let me stress something that all of you in this room know -- the U.S. Embassy cannot force U.S. businesses to invest in Armenia. It is up to Armenia to attract that investment, as it did in the case of Contour Global. Fundamentally, companies invest where there is predictability and transparency, in everything from taxation to customs regulations to court proceedings. Therefore, the U.S. Embassy will focus its work on helping to create a business environment in which all companies – Armenian, American, Russian or whatever --can compete fairly, thus increasing investor confidence,” the Ambassador said.

Referring to the U.S. investments in Armenia, Richard Mills highlighted two recent activities the Embassy organized to boost U.S. investment in Armenia: “I’d like to highlight two recent activities the Embassy organized to boost U.S. investment in Armenia, which are examples of what I want to see more of in coming months. We organized a U.S. Franchise Day in September, which brought to Yerevan several U.S. companies interested in franchise opportunities here. We also hosted a U.S. Partnership Opportunity Delegation in October that explored cooperation in the renewable energy sector. I am working with my staff to organize more such events in the future and we will be seeking input from the Chamber on how to make those events as useful as possible.”

“I want to emphasize that our support for economic growth in Armenia puts great emphasis on the regions. For instance, the U.S. Government has been actively helping to develop the Armenian agricultural sector for more than 20 years. The sector employs 40% of the Armenian labor force and accounts for 20% of Armenian GDP, so agriculture is vitally important to the health and growth of the overall Armenian economy. Our 8 agricultural support programs now implemented by USAID currently provide about $12 million in assistance to boost the competitiveness of Armenian agriculture and grow the economies of rural communities.

In addition to our sustained partnership in the agricultural sector, we have also explored other means of boosting rural development. For example – and unfortunately, I can’t give too much away – we’ll be announcing later this month a very exciting tourism initiative, in cooperation with the Smithsonian Institution in the United States, that I believe will inject a burst of oxygen into the economy of rural Armenia,” Richard Mills said.