ArmInfo. Despite the decline in interest in entrepreneurship compared to 2019, Armenia maintains a leading position in this indicator in Eastern Europe, and is among the top five countries in the world. This was stated by the managing partner of the consulting company Ameria, well-known economist Tigran Jrbashyan, referring to the results of the second national report GEM Armenia National Report 2024/2025, prepared within the framework of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM).
The decline compared to 2019, as he noted, was due to a series of crises that the country has gone through over the past 5 years, which completely destroyed the romantic ideas of business about the future that were formed after the 2018 revolution.
Answering a question from an ArmInfo correspondent, the economist noted that, compared to the comparable period, the business sector today is more sober in assessing its capabilities. "Perhaps, due to romantic ideas at that time, they overestimated their competencies and knowledge," he noted.
In this vein, presenting the results of the study, Jrbashyan noted that there is a decline in the self-esteem of entrepreneurs and an understanding is coming that entrepreneurship requires the presence of relevant skills and knowledge.
"This is very important, since the time when people thought that they would do business and get rich has passed. Now they have a more serious approach. This is all a consequence of the fact that entrepreneurship in our country has become entrepreneurship. In 2019, it was obvious that for most of our businessmen, knowledge, competitiveness, and someone's patronage were not important. Today, people have begun to understand that everything depends on them. That is, in terms of self-esteem, the indicator has decreased quite a bit, but this is an important and positive signal," the head of the company noted.
The GEM Armenia National Report 2024/2025 was the second such study in the country. Armenia first joined the global GEM program in 2019. The study covers more than 100 indicators, including entrepreneurs' motivations, level of readiness for innovation, risk perception, investment climate, impact of digital technologies and other key aspects of the entrepreneurial environment.
The survey was conducted from April to June 2024, involving 37 experts and over 2,000 respondents aged 18 to 64 from Yerevan and regions (cities and villages). The margin of error is +/- 2.2%. The national team of the research group was led by Tigran Jrbashyan. Financing for such a large-scale work was provided by the consulting company America.
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor program has been conducted for over 25 years and is considered one of the most authoritative international studies in the field of entrepreneurship. Every year, about 200 thousand people and more than 3 thousand experts around the world participate in it.
You can read the full report by clicking on the link:
https://ameriaadvisory.am/wpcontent/uploads/2025/06/2024-2025-GEM-National-Report-English.pdf .
