ArmInfo.The former authorities of Armenia stimulated investments only on paper. This opinion was expressed on March 27 at a press conference by the Chairman of the Republican Union of Employers of Armenia (RSRA) Gagik Makaryan.
According to him, recently, studying the practice of attracting investments and its shortcomings, he noted a very interesting thing for himself. "From year to year the government of Armenia did more to create obstacles to investment than to attract them. On paper, it would seem, attempts were made to stimulate investment, but in reality it was the opposite," he said. As of today, as the expert noted, if the government is really aimed at increasing the investment flow, then it should start with the elimination of these barriers.
As Makaryan stressed, in the absence of direct foreign investments in countries, including, in Armenia, the market of capital does not develop, financing comes through credit institutions. Access to these financial resources, as he pointed out, is extremely limited, since there is a conflict of interests - in some cases the owners of these banks are not interested in the development of certain industries.
Gagik Makaryan reminds that in order to attract an investor into the country, it is necessary to ensure the fulfillment of 8 points. First of all, they are frightened off by a protectionist policy regarding domestic producers. In former Armenia, this was manifested either by the desire of the local authorities to enter into a share with an investor, or a local importer closely intertwined with the incumbent authorities, was given a go-ahead to monopolize a number of industries.
In addition, for the investor from abroad, there was a problem of acquiring affordable land or real estate, as potentially profitable land plots were already in the hands of large oligarchs.
Many difficulties to this day are also associated with the transfer of foreign currency from Armenia, the low level of intellectual property protection, as well as shortcomings in the sphere of arbitration proceedings.
The "habit" of the Armenian authorities to frequently change the tax legislation is also alarming the investor.
The expert believes that Armenia should also work on the openness of the national economy. This openness should be manifested, among other things, by the readiness of the local organization to attract high-quality foreign labor in the RA.
According to him, if attracting investment is a priority for Armenia, it should work on improving the competitiveness of the workforce.
The low level of labor productivity in the republic significantly reduces the competitiveness of the national economy and organizations, as a result of which it is impossible to attract project capital. All of this, as Makaryan noted, is due to the regressive educational system, and, as a result, the shortage of qualified labor.
"Summarizing the above, we can say that for many years we have invited an investor in Armenia, but we haven't done anything significant aimed at it, and many important questions are often ignored. For many years, in order to attract investments, changes were made to the laws, "primitive" improvements were made, but in the global sense, nothing has changed. Meanwhile, the presence of one or two such barriers is enough for investors to exercise extreme caution, "Gagik Makaryan stressed.