ArmInfo.Armenia will never be able to have a positive trade balance with Turkey. A similar opinion was expressed by expert, co-founder of the Export Armenia Association Emil Stepanyan during a press conference on January 19.
According to Stepanyan, by establishing relations and mutually opening markets, Turkey will gradually move Armenian goods from Armenia's trade shelves. "Let someone tell me that something can be produced in Armenia at a lower production cost than in Turkey, Iran or another big country," he said.
In this regard, the expert noted that the embargo is not a solution, but Turkish imports to the Armenian market can be made less profitable. Stepanyan spoke about the experience of the United States and Europe, which, within the framework of their state policy, encourage local producers, setting strict conditions for importers.
At the same time, he pointed out the importance of being able to distinguish between such concepts as "desirable" and "undesirable" export/import. The co-founder of the Association noted that the main part of Armenian exports to the Turkish market is represented by raw materials, which are processed there and re- sent to the domestic market. "It's a shame. This needs to be corrected. Who needs such an export? And certain people in government circles still do not distinguish between "desirable" and "undesirable" exports. When they present export statistics and note the positive dynamics, they do not say that this is due to the increase in prices, but they talk about the effective work they have done. Otherwise, they blame everyone around, except themselves", Stepanyan said.
Speaking about the lifting of the embargo on Turkish goods, the expert called this decision shameful. In this context, he stressed that along with the decision to ban the import of Turkish products to the Armenian market, it was necessary to impose restrictions on the sale of Turkish goods in our country. For half a year, trading posts traded Turkish products filled in their warehouses and purchased in advance. Thus, with the embargo in place, there were no places for domestic products on the trade shelves of Armenia.
According to Stepanyan, the state, in turn, needed not to limit itself to recommendations on finding alternative markets, but to work with manufacturers from the very first day to help the latter occupy a niche in the domestic market.
In turn, Anna Beklyarova, co-founder of the Export Armenia Association, pointed out the lack of proper state support for exporting producers. In this context, she drew a parallel with the Russian Federation, where there is a powerful "Russian Export Center" body, which is a state-owned company and assists both beginners and medium-sized producers to enter export markets. According to Beklyarova, in Armenia, the consequences of the current situation are directly related to the absence of such institutions. In addition, she emphasized the need for a systematic approach to problem solving. "Don't take issues out of context. Everywhere they write about problems in marketing, branding. This is true, but the problems of the sector are much more numerous", she said. According to the expert, in addition to process automation and production modernization, manufacturers also have certain, serious problems with personnel. In this regard, she pointed out the lack of financial resources to attract professional managers for branding and marketing, which has a bad effect on the level of competitiveness of local products. The state, according to Beklyarova, should develop appropriate mechanisms for attracting and training the necessary specialists, including through outsourcing.
Besides, the co-founders of Export Armenia noted that the members of the Association are not exporters, but experts, business analysts who can offer numerous programs to solve existing issues. However, there is no state body that would implement this.
"Today, the exporter does not know where to turn. There was a "Business Armenia" body, which was closed, and nothing was established instead of it. <Investment Promotion Center> does not deal with exporters. There is a foreign trade department of the Ministry of Economy, but they also do not deal with these issues, but only create the appearance of work>, Stepanyan complained.
At the end of 2021, the Armenian government decided not to extend the ban on the import of Turkish goods, introduced in the country at the end of December 2020, from January 1, 2022. The corresponding resolution was adopted by the authorities in view of Turkey's involvement in the 44-day Artsakh war.
As the Minister previously reported, in 2020, goods worth $260 million were delivered from Turkey to Armenia, while the volume of Armenian exports amounted to about $2-3 million. By the end of 2021, as Kerobyan said, the volume of Turkish imports decreased by 10 times, and deliveries of Armenian goods were reset to zero.
In mid-December 2021, the governments of Armenia and Turkey announced the appointment of special representatives to start a dialogue on normalizing relations.
