YEREVAN. - Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan on Friday discussed issues related to the foreign economic policy of Armenia with the central staff of the country’s MFA, as well as heads of diplomatic missions and consular offices. 

The PM first congratulated the meeting participants on the Diplomat’s Day, wishing them productive work. “I attach great importance to your work, since the external world very often learns about our country by means of you. Your role abroad is great in terms of making more available to foreign investors the information on doing business and making investments in Armenia,” Karapetyan noted.

He also attached importance to raising the productivity of the activity of diplomatic missions, specifically with the inclusion of the economic component. Referring to the opening of Armenian trade representations aboard, the PM noted that that process has been suspended.  “I considered this non-efficient. If we have ambassadors and interests in those countries, why not use the platforms of embassies?” he noted.

Karapetyan stressed that he expects more applicable results from the activity of Armenian embassies and consular offices in the sphere of trade and economic relations. In the PM’s words, the communication and link between the foreign diplomatic missions of Armenia and the Armenian Ministry of Economic Development and Investments, as well as other agencies should be periodic. It is necessary to present Armenia’s investment capacities more actively and effectively. “Let's just roll up our sleeves and start working,” he urged.

Presenting the work carried out by the Armenian Government, the PM said that the following macro tasks have been solved: all the spheres have been “diagnosed,” the vision and actions of each sphere having been drawn up.

Referring to the development vision and logic of reforms in the sphere of information technologies, Karapetyan said: “The information technologies sector can indeed be one of the drivers of economy. But we have one simple problem: we ensure 400-500 specialists per year, the need for such specialists currently being 2000.  However, the university system doesn’t respond to the demands of the market. We should change the system, since according to our predictions, in the near future we will have 5000 jobs, which will ensure the greatest annual growth in GDP,” Karapetyan said.

Furthermore, the head of the Government underscored the importance of the Center for Strategic Initiatives as a platform of cooperation between the public and private sectors, where Armenia’s long-term development vision will be formed. “We have separated 5-6 programs for the first stage: tourism, tax and customs administration, information technologies, agriculture, education and development of strategies of the state administration system.”

Apart from this, the PM presented details on the investment policy of the Government.  “We want to break the stereotype that there is no place in Armenia to make investments, to earn money, etc. We have presented very precise investment programs, whose total value is 3,2 billion USD, and which note both the investment object and financial source, as well as those who will implement them. […] There are five sources: private sector, state budget, community, grant and loan. Moreover, now there are 5,3 billion USD programs on our table, which are increasing every day. We don’t yet have their financial sources, and in many cases, those who will implement them, but we have programs, which can be logical.”

Issues on the economic development vision of Armenia, use of the Diaspora’s potential and increase in the involvement of Armenia’s diplomatic institutions were also discussed at the meeting. The Armenian ambassadors expressed satisfaction with the investment packages received recently from Armenia’s agencies concerned, noting that they are targeted, applicable and useful. The ambassadors referred to the indexes recorded in the sphere of trade and economic relations, volumes of commodity turnover and development opportunities.

Armenian Ambassador to Iran, Artashes Tumanyan, particularly noted that there is a positive change in the sphere of Armenian-Iranian economic cooperation: there are specific programs and successful examples of export from Armenia to Iran. The received investment programs are under discussion.

Armenian Ambassador to Mexico, Ara Ayvazyan, welcomed the inclusion of the economic component in diplomacy, qualifying the investment packages received from the Armenian Government as promising. He also added that currently 9 large companies are discussing the possibilities of implementing joint investment programs in Armenia.

Armenian Ambassador to the Netherlands, Dzyunik Aghajanyan, for her part, referred to the Armenian-Dutch relations and prospects for joint programs in the sphere of agriculture and tourism.

The participants also discussed issues related to the activity of Armenia’s trade representations abroad, formation of economic attachés, promotion of tourism, etc.