Tuesday, 27 November 2012
Government, Win Makers and Precision Engineering Operators Sign Memorandum of Understanding
Chaired by Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, the Industry Council by the Prime Minister held a regular meeting in the Office of Government. In attendance were heads of State agencies, private sector and parliamentary party representatives.
The first issue was presented by Minister of Economy Tigran Davtyan who reported back the activities carried out under the government’s export-oriented industrial policy strategy in the frame of which structural, investment, organizational and financial assistance programs have been implemented.
According to the Minister, as of January-October, 2012, industrial companies had manufactured AMD895bn-worth products, 10% up as compared to the same period of 2011. For the first time Armenia may touch the mark of 1 trillion in industrial output this year. In the meantime, exports are up 13% to AMD305 billion.
The government’s private sector assistance tools have been used in the period under review. In particular, 8 investment programs to a total cost of AM17.5bn have been approved for VAT extension since the month of January. They are expected to generate some 350 new jobs. Several new enterprises have been commissioned in the meantime, with 4-5 businesses to be launched by this yearend. The temporary import customs regime has been applied to 5 projects with a total cost of 1.3 billion drams.
AMD2.4bn-worth lending has been made available to small and medium businesses, including industry. “This is an unprecedented level, which much higher than that of the previous years. As a whole, 29 companies and three individuals are among the program beneficiaries. We can witness a serious boost in this field of activity as several new loan applications keep coming in,” Tigran Davtyan noted.
The Minister said that the government’s decision to form an industrial development fund, which will supplement the series of structures and tools that are available in this sector for the development of the Foundation Board, in addition to public sector, the private sector will be involved as well as representatives of the state budget in 2013 allocate 300 million fund is expected that there will be involved in the action.
The meeting referred to the strategy in the pharmaceutical, biotechnological and brandy-making sectors. The 2012-2015 draft action plan was discussed in gold-mining, diamond-processing watch-making sectors.
The meeting also approved the 2012-2020 strategy and 2012-2015 action plan for the precision engineering and wine-making sectors.
Attended by Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, on behalf of the ministries of agriculture and economy, the Government concluded a memorandum of understanding with the Wine Makers’ Union of Armenia. Minister of Economy Tigran Davtyan and Minister of Agriculture Sergo Karapetyan signed the MOU for the Government of the Republic of Armenia.
Another memorandum of understanding was signed between the Ministry of Economy and the precision engineering industry, manufacturing companies, educational and research institutions, enterprises, associations.
The memoranda seek to promote long-term development of the above-mentioned sectors, internationally competitive products and to ensure international recognition through the extension of the desire to expand cooperation between the public and private sectors of the wine and engineering development strategies.
The proposed joint activities will be based on the principle of co-financing by the State and private sector with coordinated initiatives to ensure efficiency and use of resources.
State-private partnership is expected to promote competitive exports toward international markets, expand competitive wine grape cultivation areas, ensure sustainable growth in the home output and exports, diversify export markets, enhance the quality of products and increase international competitiveness, create new jobs, provide for sustainable rural area development, expand the scope and coverage of contracts signed with grape producers, application of modern agricultural machinery and technologies, recruitment of high-quality personnel.
In the field of precision engineering, the arrangement tends to ensure sustainable growth in production and exports, growth in the number of innovative start-up companies, enhanced product quality and increased international competitiveness, creation of new jobs, expansion of the volume of State orders by local producers etc.
