Friday, March 17 2023 20:40

ArmInfo. Armenia cooperated with McKinsey & Co in forming a global business environment, Armenia's Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan said in an interview with RepatIT. 

The work was launched in three directions: business requirements,  personal requirements and administrative requirements. Dozens of  tasks have to be accomplished, and some of them have been  accomplished.  

Elaborating on business requirements, the minister said that they  have four subgroups - mobility, commercial real estate, jurisdiction  and taxes. Last year, Armenia managed to open new nonstop flights  last year and plans to open new ones this year. Visa requirements  have been simplified with many countries. 

As regards personal requirements, the minister mentioned healthcare,  education, housing. He reported Russian-language classes have been  opened in dozens of Armenian schools, Armenian and russian insurance  companies established cooperation. 

"In this segment, we have over 30 tasks to accomplish , and we are  accomplishing them step by step," Mr Kerobyan said.  

A number of issues can be settled by means of constitutional  amendments. Armenia's Ministry of Economy sees a need for a legal  environment that would be clear to international investors. "We want  to form new jurisdiction in Armenia's territory, English law  jurisdiction. I cannot guarantee it will be accepted. But we  submitted this proposal to the workgroup for constitutional reforms,"  the minister said.  

In one of his recent interview with Vedomisti, Mr Kerobyan reported  that around 110,000 Russians moved to Armenia for permanent residence  in 2022 amid the Ukraine conflict and the partial mobilization in  their homeland.

"Clean relocation stood at approximately 108,000-110,000 citizens in  2022. That is how many Russians came to Armenia and stayed  permanently. In addition, about 2,500 legal entities with Russian  participants opened last year, apart from 4,000 businesses registered  in the form of individual entrepreneurs," he said. 

The minister added that on average, Russians open 500 businesses in  Armenia per year.

"The companies are very diverse in terms of scale, in some of them  staff consists of 600-700 employees, in others there is one person  working.

The additional inflow of customer funds into the Armenian banking  system was $3 billion last year," Kerobyan said.

These factors accounted for about a quarter of Armenia's GDP growth,  that is over 3% out of 12.6%, the minister specified.