Thursday, November 17 2016 12:09

ArmInfo. Armenian Minister of Economic Development and Investments Suren Karayan held a meeting with representatives of the Directorate-General for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations. The delegation included Mr.  Vassilis Maragos, Head of Unit C2, Directorate-General, Ambassador Piotr Switalski, Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, and others.    

As the press office of the Ministry has told ArmInfo, Karayan noted that Armenia gives high priority to cooperation with the EU and hopes for further promotion of that effective cooperation. As regards the EU support for 2017-2020, the minister presented the priority directions, stressing the significance of facilitating trade, improving the business climate and implementing SME support

programmes.        

Vassilis Maragos, in turn, pointed out the importance of negotiations on the new Armenia-EU framework agreement, which will promote the bilateral cooperation.  

To recall, earlier Mr. Hoa-Binh Adjemian, Head of Operations at the EU Delegation to Armenia, told ArmInfo that the EU structures actually allocate nearly 1 mln EUR weekly for SME development in  Armenia. This year the total amount of support to SMEs will make up 45 mln EUR. In addition, the EU has provided 100 mln EUR for various infrastructure projects in the fields of water supply, power engineering, construction of the North-South corridor. The European Investment Bank is also going to provide low-interest loans to the Central Bank of Armenia for on-lending to SMEs through the  commercial banks. To note, in an interview with ArmInfo, Head of EU Delegation to Armenia Piotr Switalski has recently said that the EU's financial  support to Armenia is record high in 2016. The financial support usually amounts to nearly 50 mln EUR. This year the EU will redouble the amount, he said.