President.am
4/13/05

President Kocharian held a meeting with the newly elected leadership of the
Industrialists and Businessmen Union

Today, President Kocharian held a working meeting with the newly elected
leadership of the Industrialists and Businessmen Union.
The leaders of the Union presented to the President issues raised during the
last general meeting of the Union, and asked for President’s assistance in
addressing those issues.
Discussed at the meeting with the President were issues pertaining to the
promotion of equal competition, assistance to local producers, especially
those who export their production, import of industrial machinery,
mitigation of currency fluctuations effects and other relevant issues.
Robert Kocharian noted that decisive steps were taken for the elimination of
protectionism and promotion of equal opportunities for competition. As an
example, President Kocharian mentioned inspections conducted by the
Presidential Oversight Board with regard to the entrepreneurs related to the
leadership at the Tax and Customs Administrations, as well as taxes paid by
300 major businessmen, social payments, and reports on the actual number of
employees. “The most efficient method in this area is high transparency,
which will reveal all the shortcomings, and will make it easier to address
them”, noted President Kocharian.
According to the President it is equally important that businesses make
proposals for more effective managing of these issues.
Speaking about taxes on imported industrial machinery, President Kocharian
mentioned that acknowledging the urgency of the matter the corresponding
instructions have been issued for the relevant structures. The President
said that a new package of proposals related to these issues is being
prepared in consultations with the international financial institutions.
President Kocharian assured the businessmen that avenues for addressing all
the raised issues would be explored thoroughly and the most effective ones
would be implemented.
Robert Kocharian wished the entrepreneurs success, mentioning once again,
that while promoting their businesses they should paid the utmost attention
to strict adherence to their tax responsibilities.