Armenia will do its best to improve its business environment, Serzh Sargsyan tells investors in New York

ArmInfo. Armenia provides stable macro environment, which is the major precondition for businesses in seeking stability for their investments, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said at the "Armenia: Investment Forum-2016" in New York on October 10.

The press office of the Armenian President quotes Serzh Sargsyan as saying, "Recent developments in the region and in CIS countries, with skyrocket currency depreciations, attest to Armenia's capacity to cope with external negative shocks while keeping macro-environment stable and predictable. Armenian government and Central Bank effectively anchor public expectations allowing Armenian dram to depreciate in line with the path of economic fundamentals. Looking to the future Armenia will strongly continue to follow the golden rule of maintaining macro stability through the application of effective fiscal and monetary policies. We most certainly are committed to further enhancing the business climate of the country. Our utmost priority is the introduction of a digital governance to provide for the services in line with the requirements of our people and business circles appropriate for the 21st century. For instance, nowadays everyone can track all treasury expenditures in real time, submit inquires and questions to our public service and follow up on the status of their applications online, to receive licenses and other state service electronically".

Sargsyan stressed that a lot more is envisaged to make business environment in Armenia highly efficient, especially with significantly improved customs and tax services. "A week ago Armenia's parliament adopted a new tax code that provides for a number of benefits to business and investors in Armenia. We have simplified the procedures followed by our tax administration bodies, thus making the tax monitoring processes much more business friendly. Recently, we've committed ourselves to making our business environment much more stable and predictable through the application of judicial reforms and a commitment to strong principles of investment protection. These principles are in fact embedded in the Constitutional reform we have adopted in 2015. This reform will result in transition from the semi- presidential mode of governance to the parliamentary one. That initiative was also conditioned by the economic considerations since the parliamentary mode of governance, in our view, will be more effective for our country, also in the economic terms," he noted.

The President pointed out that the new Cabinet, which was formed just a few days ago, has been mandated to take bold steps to further enhance legal and institutional reforms, making the investment environment of Armenia much more attractive for both local and foreign investors. "To this end we have reformed the Ministry of Economy into the Ministry for Economic Development and Investments in order to provide the entrepreneurs interested in investing in Armenia with a political platform to raise the issues they face and find solutions to those issues. Furthermore, we have empowered the Development Foundation of Armenia, which acts as an implementation agency, to assist foreign investors in all matters. We see the engagement of international investors as an essential component to boost Armenia's economy. Therefore, we commit ourselves to tailoring legislative solutions for global actors, who would wish to partner with us in making our vision of Armenia as one of the most efficient, secure and profitable opening to the major markets in the region to come true. We look forward to seeing you all in Armenia," he said.