The Ministry of Economy of Armenia has submitted to the Government a small and medium business development program for 2011. The program was drafted under Minister Nerses Yeritsyan, but will be presented by the newly appointed Minister Tigran Davtyan.

Last year, when Minister of Finance, Tigran Davtyan halved the budgetary financing of the SMB development program. Under the program, the Government is to allocate a total of 150 million AMD (about U.S. $450,000) for SMB development this year. However, the greater part of the amount, 100 million AMD (U.S. $280,000) is intended for the payment of salaries to the personnel of the Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development National Center of Armenia (SME DNC of Armenia) rather than to SMB proper. Only 50 million AMD (U.S. $140,000) will be allocated to the SMB. Armenia must be the only country where, under programs, administration costs are double the amount of program costs proper.

According to the information reported by the RA Ministry of Economy, the SMB share in Armenia’s GDP was, supposedly, 42.5% in 2009. Taxes paid by small and medium enterprises constituted 26.8% of budget revenues (139.8 billion AMD or U.S. $388 million).