SHARE OF SME REGISTERED IN ARMENIAN MARZES ON INCREASE

Noyan Tapan
Mar 27 2006

YEREVAN, MARCH 27, NOYAN TAPAN. In 2005, the production of Armenian
small and medium enterprises (SME) accounted for 40% of Armenia’s
gross domestic product (GDP), which is a 1.4% increase compared with
the previous year, and a 20.3% increase on 2000. Ishkhan Karapetian,
Director of the Armenian SME National Development Center (NDC), stated
this on March 24. According to him, in 2005, the SME development index
grew by 55 points to 172 points, whereas in 2003 this index made 58
points (the SME development index is an aggregated index, which is
calculated based on the share of the private sector’s production in
GDP, the percentage of those employed at SME in the total number,
and GDP per capita). In addition, the share of SME production in
the volume of exports increased as well: in 2005, it made up 16.4%
against 15.3% in 2004 and 14.3% in 2002. According to I. Karapetian,
the share of small and medium enterprises in the total number of
enterprises registered in late 2005 constituted 97.8%. The pecentage of
SME registered in the Armenian marzes in the total number of SME grew
and made 52% in 2005, which is indicative of the fact that the economic
activity gap between Yerevan and the marzes is decreasing. According
to I. Karapetian, in 2005, about 9 thousand SME were registered in
Armenia, thanks to which 22-23 thousand jobs were created.