(Armenpress). The legislative reforms in investment field, the increase of country’s recognition at international platforms contributed to increasing foreign investments flow in Armenia.
The volume of foreign direct investments in the first quarter of 2017 has increased by nearly 4.84%, comprising over 19.7 billion AMD. According to official data, most investments in the first quarter have been made in information and communication, processing industry, mining industry and energy fields.
Vahagn Lalayan – head of investment attraction and coordination department at the ministry of economic development and investments, told Armenpress the major investors of the recent years are Germany, Canada, Lebanon, France, Cyprus, Argentina, Russia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
“In recent period we are taking active steps aimed at attracting foreign investments. We have created a serious state support tool that promotes all sectors. We have launched investment legislation reforms. The law on foreign investments is almost ready and will be submitted to the government soon. The main focus is on protection of investments which will contribute to increasing investors’ trust. We have taken huge steps to present Armenia at major platforms. They increase the recognition as a country for investments. The ministry also created printed materials presenting Armenia’s investment environment, investment programs which were distributed across the world through our diplomatic representations, as well as they were posted in websites”, Lalayan said.
According to him, the next step is the creation of platform for investment programs. Major prospective programs in Armenia are posted at investmentprojects.am.
According to official data, most investments in the first quarter have been made in information and communication, processing industry, energy and mining industry fields. The net investment flows in ICT field amounted to 16 million USD, in mining industry the investment comprised 18 million USD, 5 million USD in housing, and 4 million USD in processing industry. According to statistics, foreign investments in the first quarter of 2017 have not been made in plant growing, cattle breeding, cigarette production, construction of buildings and other spheres. Speaking about these sectors, Lalayan said there can be numerous reasons.
According to the data of the ministry’s internal monitoring, 66 programs are being carried out in the first 6 months of 2017, with a total of 500 million USD investments which will provide with 7140 new jobs. Majority of investments have been made by foreign investors. Based on the data of the first half of the year, over 230 million USD investments have already been made, nearly 2700 jobs have been created. These investments were mainly made in mining industry, agriculture, food industry, pharmaceutical fields. Over 45 million USD investments were made in agriculture field, creating 640 jobs. There is also a great activeness of investments in energy, IT and tourism spheres. 167 million USD investments have been carried out in provinces, with over 2000 new jobs created, mostly in Vayotz Dzor, Ararat, Syunik, Kotayk provinces.
“The textile industry has great potential, however, it was not being utilized until the past 2 years. During this year 8-10 productions have been created in this field. The monitoring results show activeness. The expectations are positive, and we also expect positive result based on annual data”, Lalayan stated.
