WALLOON AND FLANDERS COMPETE IN ACTIVATING TRADE RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA

arminfo
2007-12-19 23:29:00

ArmInfo. A business-forum of business circles representatives of
Armenia and Belgium took place at the Armenian Development Agency
(ADA), Wednesday.

Directors of 14 Belgian companies familiarized themselves with
economic policy of Armenia, the macroeconomic situation, tax and
customs legislation, the possibilities for export and import in the
sphere. "Armenia and Belgium don’t have land boundaries, nevertheless,
the potential of the cooperation is not fully realized", Belgian
Ambassador Charles Ghislain (residence in Brussels) said at the
forum. He said that the majority of businessmen arrived in Armenia
have Armenian roots and, on the whole, the existence of Armenian
Diaspora in Belgium is an extra stimulus for successful development of
bilateral relations. Armenian President Robert Kocharian’s official
visit to Brussels in October 2007 became a tangible impetus for the
Armenian-Belgian relations, the diplomat said.

As ADA Director Tigran Davtyan emphasized in his talk with ArmInfo
correspondent, Heads of 14 Belgian companies represent different
branches of economy. "Earlier, export and import of diamond
processing industry made up 98% of commodity circulation between
Armenia and Belgium, which in its turn made up 130mln USD. Presently,
the branch experiences a crisis in view of the known processes in
the international markets and we try to diversify our cooperation, to
compensate the losses with new directions of partnership", T. Davtyan
said. According to him, woodworking industry, power economy, high
technologies, engineering, banking system will become new directions
in the trade relations. The hundreds of bilateral meetings between
Armenian and Belgian businessmen held over the last 2 months serve
as basis for optimism.

To note, Belgium is still represented by Walloon, but business
circles of Flanders receiving the information about active interest
of their compatriots, also expressed wish to organize a business
forum immediately.

At the beginning of 2008 Yerevan is to receive heads of Flanders’
enterprises.