YEREVAN.- Armenian PM Karen Karapetyan gave a short interview to “Orakarg” informational program of the Public TV of Armenia about the goal of participating in the World Economic Forum of Davos and the results of the meetings, the press service of the Government of Armenia reported.

Bellow is the speech of the Premier:

“I think the economic forum of Davos is important since there are many platforms there addressing the challenges facing the humanity, states and economies. And this is a very good platform where one can exchange ideas, present his visions, and also listen to others. I think it’s explained by our goal that we have to eliminate all the obstacles facing business development. We think we have developed a rather ambitious reform program and in 2017 we implemented part of it – be it customs, tax, public-private interactions, border crossing, return of VAT or other obstacles, as well as providing loans and opening markets. I think the factor of general international activation played a role there.

Returning to the topic of the World Economic Forum, I have to note that we have an agenda of bilateral relations and apart from that we have also bilateral relations that are left out of the cameras and where we discuss our issues. I think we had very promising meetings and will still have, the agenda is not exhausted yet.

I highlight all the meetings, since the agenda was formed by both our and the other side’s initiative. We just met with the UNDP representatives, where we discussed the criteria and ideas that should guide the world and as you may know, we are the first country where the UNDP has created a relevant laboratory in collaboration with the state. We will submit a report to the UN in July, where we will point out what we have done. We have offered them to enter the territory of Armenia very confidently. We present our visions on reforms, and they present their visions.

The meetings with Prime Ministers are also promising, during which we talk about the possible prospects of bilateral developments, as well as about business. There are many unscheduled meetings with business representatives. Here they were the initiators. They listened about the possible growth and activation that we expect and also we want to raise interest among them towards our country. There is a very clear thing that everyone accepts, that is being a small country we have quite interesting opportunities and privileged trade regimes, be it the EAEU, to which we are a member, the EU with which we have the GSP+ regime, or United States, Switzerland, Canada, Japan, Norway. We talked about such a regime also with Singapore – about bilateral exemption of taxes and will continue that program very intensively in the future as well, because it eliminates the existing obstacles and I think we will record good results.

But we should not get tired, we must work consistently and be heard b the world. We must present ourselves to raise that interest towards us. It will not happen on its own. Interest towards our country will not rise if we just wait for it."