Minister of Economy: Foreign investments rush to mining sector

ArmInfo. The Mining  industry is not only the leading branch of Armenian economy and the  most important due to its deal in the national GDP, but also an aspect the foreign investments rush to, Suren Karayan, the Economic Development and Investments Minister  stated within  his opening remarks at the sustainable mining business conference, held in Yerevan  on November 16.

As Karayan mentioned, the Armenian Government pays a big importance to the attraction of investments and improvement of the investment climate attractiveness. Within this purpose, a policy of "open doors", ruling out any restrictions or discrimination for investors, is  being  implemented nowadays. According to his words, arrangements on regulatory framework improvement in the fields  of mining, investments activities are carried out, numerous projects aimed at  the export diversification and expansion of external markets. According to Minister, an important meaning is paid also to the consequent development of the mining industry, as well as to the safety of natural resources and efficient utilization of those, environmentally safe mining. The issues of infrastructure extension and logistics are subject to be solved as well.

To note, in January- September 2016 the mining sector showed 13,7% grow (versus 40,5 % grow a year ago) - up to AMD 188,4 bln. The volumes of the mining sector for January-December 2015 formed AMD 221,2 bln, with an annual growth of 50,4%.  The deal of the sector in GDP is AMD 5032,1 bln in annual view, or 4,4 % GDP.

The net DFF to mining sector in the first half of 2016 formed AMD 15545 bl, versus negative AMD  6909 bln for the same period of 2015.