A structure that has been able to make its voice heard in all state agencies. This is how the Republican Union of Employers of Armenia (RUEA) characterizes the results of its activity.

‘We are actively involved in all reforms. We can say that no document is sent to the government without our opinion. We have provided serious representation in the country,” says RUEA President Gagik Makaryan.

During the ten years of its activity the Union has increased the number of its members from 160 to 13.000. About 45 percent of them work in the private sector. Gagik Makaryan says this is a serious number for ‘having a final say.’

“We quickly respond all the changes. I can say that we are always on the alert. We say, ‘You haven’t done this or that, or you have done it wrong and it is not important that we mostly were not heard [in the past], the important thing is that we say and now it starts to influence.”

Though there are numerous recorded achievements, people at the RUEA say they still have a lot of work to do, especially the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have many problems that need to be addressed. The Union promises to continually voice them until they find a final solution.