ArmInfo.On September 7, Minister of Finance of Armenia Tigran Khachatryan received Regional Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for Caucasus, Moldova and Belarus Catarina Bjorlin Hansen and Head of EBRD Yerevan Office Dmitry Gvintadze.
During the meeting, Minister Khachatryan noted that the EBRD is one of the most important partners for Armenia, which is conditioned not only by the financial component of cooperation, but also by the philosophy that the organization brings to Armenia, thereby contributing to development in both the private and public sectors. According to the Minister, the level of cooperation with the EBRD is quite high, and there are necessary prerequisites for the promotion and effective implementation of all joint programs and ideas. He highlighted the implementation of regional infrastructure projects in cooperation with the EBRD and stressed the importance of steps to promote the development of the capital market in Armenia.
The EBRD representative expressed the Bank's readiness to contribute to the further development of Armenia and to be a part of this process.
The interlocutors exchanged views on key areas of cooperation, in particular, on infrastructure projects and their prospects. The parties highlighted the current macroeconomic stability in Armenia in terms of a favorable investment environment.
The EBRD is a leading institutional investor in Armenia and is active in all sectors of the economy. Having started its activities in Armenia in 1992, as of early June 2020, the Bank invested 1.36 billion euros in Armenia in 178 projects in the financial, corporate, infrastructure and energy sectors, with 90% of investments made in the private sector. As Head of EBRD Yerevan Office Dmitry Gvintadze said at the 18th regular meeting of the Council for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises held on February 19, 2021, in 2020 the volume of transactions of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in Armenia amounted to a record 160 million euros, of which about 93% are in the private sector.
