ArmInfo.Armenian Economy Minister Vahan Kerobyan urged the business community not to be afraid to take risks and make full use of government preferences. Speaking today at a logistics conference organized by CDEK, he noted that the country continues to show impressive economic growth (10.9% in the first two months of this year), while there is a significant reduction in inflation.
Noting that the current stabilization of the inflationary spiral at the level of 5.4% gives hope for the easing of monetary policy, which should lead to lower interest rates and, as a result, facilitating access to inexpensive financial resources for businessmen.
At the same time, Kerobyan informed the conference participants about the significant government decisions for entrepreneurship aimed at improving the business environment and supporting exports. One of the most important programs in this regard, the minister considers steps to modernize the economy through the opportunities that have opened up for companies to purchase modern equipment and production lines on the basis of leasing subsidized by the government. According to Kerobyan, the government already subsidizes a significant part of leasing payments, which provides an opportunity for entrepreneurs to upgrade fixed assets at an effective rate of 3-4% per annum in drams. He noted that over the past 7 months, the government has allocated about 74 billion drams from the budget for these purposes.
Kerobyan also recalled that he personally initiated the issue related to the problems of small exporters of goods that they experienced due to unreasonably high customs duties and clumsy customs administration. We are talking about the export of small consignments of goods worth up to 1 million drams. The Ministry of Economy has achieved changes in customs procedures and introduced amendments to the law on customs tariffs. Now the government has canceled customs payments from small consignments of exported goods, but for technical reasons, the new regulations could not enter into force on time, but only since March of this year. The minister informed the businessmen that the state accepts its fault for the delay, and is ready for applicants, if they have documentation, to compensate for customs costs from the date the law comes into force.
