ArmInfo. Establishment of a dialog between business sector and the government of Armenia is a complex process because of lack of trust, expert from UEAPME Christian Gessl said at a press-conference on February 26.
Mentality is often mentioned as an argument referring to the fact that Armenia is a country of post soviet space and establishment of dialog between SME and the government is a time-taking process. But let's take a look at the Baltic States, where one will not find such kind of problems. The matter concerns not the mentality but lack of confidence between business and the state, he emphasized.
Regulation of tax and custom legislations, reducing the level of corruption and softening the conditions for SME lending are the main tasks for development of the small and medium business in the country, according to the expert. The legislation does not allow the business to develop and the authorities state that there are too many representatives of SME in the country that is why it is difficult to promote their interests, he summarized.
To note, UEAPME is the employers' organization representing the interests of European crafts, trades and SMEs at EU level. UEAPME is a recognized European Social Partner. It is a non-profit seeking and non-partisan organization. As the European SME umbrella organisation, UEAPME incorporates around 64 member organisations from 34 countries consisting of national cross-sectorial SME federations, European branch federations and other associate members, which support the SME family.UEAPME represents about 12 million enterprises, which employ around 55 million people across Europe.
To recall, 70 thousand SMEs operate in Armenia from which 58 thousand are micro and small enterprises and 10 thousand are medium enterprises. The share of SME in Armenia's GDP totals 43%, however the sector ensures only 6% of tax revenues.