ArmInfo. It is time to move from words to deeds, Armenian Economy Minister Artsvik Minasyan said during today's Invest Armenia-2016 business forum, which is being held in Armenia for the second year running at the initiative of Business Partners of Armenia.
Minasyan presented the preliminary macroeconomic indices for Q1 2016 and stressed the need to stimulate the investment projects. He noted that at the current stage measures are being taken to improve the investment climate of the country and to elaborate new investment legislation. "A complete document will be drafted, which will give high priority to the protection of foreign investors' rights," the economy minister said, noting that the given policy will change the mechanisms of protection of the Armenian judiciary system, which, in turn, will make it possible to settle economic disputes outside the republic.
Another important thing in boosting investment is the protection of the minority stakeholders' rights. In this context, Minasyan said that the republic unfortunately lacks such a mechanism to protect the rights of that group of stakeholders. "This, in turn, hampers the protection of the rights of indirect and direct investors and restricts the foreign investors' capacities in decision making," he said.
At the same time, the minister pointed out the need to conduct a more active antimonopoly policy to enhance the competition, which, he said, implies elaboration of new legislation and application of new approaches.
By the preliminary data of the Armenian National Statistical Service, in Q1 2016 the economic activity in Armenia grew by 5.5% versus Q1 2015 amid 26.3% rise in exports and 15.9% drop in imports. In March 2016 versus March 2015, the economic activity grew by 6.6% amid 13.8% growth in March 2016 versus February 2016.
The Armenian National Statistical Service reports that in 2015 the net inflow of foreign investments in Armenia's economy dropped by 26.1% to 123.7 bln AMD or $255.6 mln. In the light of changes of the investment statistics format, the analysts of the ArmInfo rating service have estimated presumable slowdown of decline in this indicator from 34% in 2014. The direct foreign investments in the net inflow of foreign investments totaled 70.4 bln AMD or $145.6 mln (39.9% drop in 2015).