ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER: FAVORABLE BUSINESS CONDITIONS WILL BOOST INVESTMENTS AND POST-CRISIS RESTORATION OF ECONOMY

ArmInfo
2009-07-29 11:48:00

ArmInfo. Philosophy of short-term reforms is creating favourable
environment for [small and medium-sized enterprises], which will
increase their capacity for confronting the crisis, said Prime
Minister of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan in an interview with bne
magazine (Business New Europe). As for long-term reforms, among
the priorities of the government is to become a business excellence
centre, which means that Armenia will be one of the most simplified
places to do business, according to the criteria of the World Bank’s
"Doing Business" report. To recall, Armenia took the 44th position
out of 181 states versus the 41st position. "If in our economy the
operation of the business in our country is simple and the necessary
system of incentives is implemented, this will make our economy more
competitive and attractive. Tax and customs reforms are the highest
priorities of the reforms, including introduction of e-taxing. The
experience of countries shows that for countries like Armenia, where
the scale effect from investments is limited as compared to large
economies, the business environment acts as an attractive incentive
for investments. Therefore, the aggressive reforms directed to the
improvement of the business environment will lead to the increase
in investment inflows and rapid restoration of the economy," the
premier said.

There is a lot of talk of a possible "second wave" in the crisis,
which is linked to the behaviour of non-performing loans of the
banking system.

However, I think in our case there is a small chance that it will
take place. This is due to the fact that the banks constitute the
major part of our financial system and their financial indicators
are strong enough, the premier said.