Economy minister: $150 to 200 million expected to come to Armenia in 2017 as direct foreign investments
Suren Karayan, Armenian economic development and investments minister, speaking Wednesday at a news conference, said that $150 to 200 million is expected to come to Armenia in 2017 as direct foreign investments.
He said that direct foreign investments in Armenia totaled $92 in Jan-Sept 2016.
“This is too little – only 1% of the country’s GDP, while for development and economic growth we should increase it at least five times to 5% of GDP as soon as possible,” he said.
In his words, some steps will be taken to achieve this indicator.
First, taking into account that Armenian market is too small, investors will get an opportunity to enter bigger markets, and second, business and investment environment will be improved.
In particular - a package of legislative changes implying simplification of some procedures and introduction of the foreign investment protection institute is ready.
Besides, ‘one window’ scheme is created to serve investors.
These steps give grounds for thinking that investments totaling $150 to 200 million will come to Armenia in 2017 also thanks to the expansion of the geography of investments.
As a successful investment-attracting project, Karayan pointed out the expected appearance of a German company at Armenia’s market.
A territory is already allocated, and the construction of the building for production of medical equipment and solutions for diagnostics is expected to be launched already in the first quarter of the next years.
To see investment potential the ministry has collected proposals from different agencies and systematized all the business ideas that can become a basis for developing investment programs.
“As many as 160 programs of the total cost of $240 million, of which 110 are programs from provinces, have already been submitted to us,” Karayan said. “Some pf them have already been discussed in the ministry and presented in the format understandable for investors. In particular, 32 such projects were presented as part of a visit to the United Arab Emirates for possible investments.”
The minister also said eight new programs, including those implying the government-supported launch of a new production will be implemented in the first quarter of 2017. Investments here are expected to total AMD 3 billion and 900 new jobs are believed to be created. -0----