YEREVAN. – In 2020, Armenia’s businesses in many sectors either shut down, froze, or changed their activities in order to somehow keep their jobs. Gagik Makaryan, Chairman of the Republican Union of Employers of Armenia, told about this to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

"Of course, the programs of state measures had a certain positive effect, but not too much because a very small number of companies used those loans.

There is a revival in business [in Armenia] since 2021, I believe we will see more active indicators in the coming quarters. But if we look at the first half of this year, many companies [in Armenia] have vacancies and cannot fill [them].

The first important sector that started working very actively [again] in Armenia is construction, including in the provinces. Many buildings are being built in Armenia today.

The second direction is metallurgy and metal products’ production; it is in this sector that we have people who have vacancies and cannot fill them. (…) we can say that the economy is starting to become active [again in Armenia]; one branch intensifies, develops the other.

We are seeing activeness [in Armenia] in the hotel and food sectors, too. I know companies that rent cars to tourists (…),"Makaryan said.

He stressed, however, that there is another problem in Armenia. "It is [the fact] that that young people are not educated in many professions. We have a lot of specialties in colleges today, as well as in technical universities, where these groups are not formed, students do not emerge because they do not like to go in that direction [of profession]. (…). Industrial specialists are needed to develop the industry. (…). And some of the specialists have left the country," Gagik Makaryan emphasized.