ArmInfo. At the meeting of the RA government, the Strategy for the development of small and medium business for 2020-2024 and the action plan for 2020-2022 based on it were approved.
As noted in the project rationale, the goal of the strategy is to create a favorable environment for small and medium-sized enterprises in the Republic of Armenia by developing entrepreneurial skills, implementing ideas, increasing competitiveness, which will provide access for small and medium-sized enterprises to domestic and foreign markets. The targeted measures of the strategy are aimed at increasing the availability of financial resources for SMEs, building their potential, as well as creating the institutional and legal environment necessary for the development of an entrepreneurial culture. One of the activities to be implemented in 2020-2024 is the conduct of courses aimed at developing entrepreneurial skills and financial literacy. It is planned that over a thousand beneficiaries will attend the courses annually. Loan guarantees will be provided to approximately 250-300 organizations to help implement viable ideas.
In order to expand access to the domestic and foreign markets, support will be provided to organizations that will be represented on international trading platforms, as well as for the development of online trading in Armenia. In order to achieve the objectives set in this context, it is especially important to implement the innovation measures provided by the strategy. In order to promote exports, companies with export potential will be selected, barriers in foreign markets will be identified, demand analysis will be carried out, as a result of which targeted assistance will be provided. In order to improve the institutional and legal framework, it is planned to improve statistics on SMEs, as well as provide online access to educational, analytical and information materials for a wide range of people interested in entrepreneurship.
As a result of the implementation of the measures identified in the strategy, it is planned to contribute to the growth of the productivity of SMEs, increasing productivity by 3% in 2020-2023 and by 7.5% in 2024. In particular, the added value created by one worker in SMEs in 2024 will amount to 12 million drams, which is almost twice as much as in 2018 (in 2018, the figure is 6.7 million drams). The number of people employed in SMEs will grow by an average of 2.5% per year.
The strategy was developed in 2019 but has been revised and updated to reflect the impact of the epidemic, the complications caused by the spread of the coronavirus, and to identify solutions to the problems. To mitigate the impact of the epidemic, more attention was paid to improving the bankruptcy process, secondary mechanisms, overcoming additional difficulties in accessing finance and the need to involve SMEs in large value chains.
