Armenian Prime Minister discussed with large importers and exporters problems hindering development of business

ArmInfo. Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan met with representatives of 10 companies, large importers of Armenia at the government today. Within the meeting the businessmen raised their concerns and expressed their expectations in the context of governmental support for creating favorable conditions for business, the press-service of the Armenian government informs.

One of the problems the importers raised was the situation in the Upper Lars border checkpoint caused by non-favorable weather conditions which hinders cargo transportation. Karen Karapetyan in his turn informed that the government is taking steps aimed at developing new road schemes and finding alternatives to Upper Kars, which will provide favorable conditions both for import and export.

During the meeting the sides also discussed opportunities of producing certain goods in Armenia and a number of other issues.

According to the source yesterday the Prime Minister held a meeting with representatives of 10 large producers- exporters, during which Karapetyan noted that in order to boost export the government intends to implement active support programs. Particularly, it is planned to hold regular monitoring of normative provisions, regulating export.  During the meeting the sides discussed problems on foreign markets, faced by the Armenian exporters and the importance of developing mechanisms for facilitating customs procedures. The Prime Minister noted that the government will be consistent in implementation of its actions aimed at solving the abovementioned problems as it considers work of export-oriented enterprises as extremely important.

According to the National Statistical Service of Armenia, in Jan-Oct 2016 the foreign trade turnover of  Armenia totaled 1952.3 bln AMD ($4067 mln), with a 6.1%  year-over-year growth. Exports increased by 19.8% to 697.8 bln AMD ($1453.7 mln), and imports decreased by 0.3% to 1254.5 bln AMD  ($2613.3 mln). In Jan-Dec 2015 versus Jan-Dec 2014, the foreign trade turnover of Armenia dropped by 20.6% versus 1% growth in 2014 and 5.6% growth in 2013 totalling 2.3 trillion AMD ($4.7 bln). In the structure of foreign trade turnover in Jan-Dec 2015 export totaled 710.5 bln AMD ($1.5 bln) with a 3.9% fall over year (versus 2.7% growth in 2014 and 7.2% growth in 2013), while import amounted to 1.6 bln AMD ($3.3 bln) with a 26.5% fall over year (versus 0.4% growth in 2014 and 5.1% growth in 2013).