Armenia President: I will keep Iranian investments under my personal control

“I will keep large investments from Iran under my personal control.”

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, who attended the Armenian-Iranian forum along with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani, stated the aforementioned on Wednesday.

In his words, at the meeting he asked his Iranian counterpart to invigorate the interest of Iranian entrepreneurs towards Armenia.

“For my part, I promised to present Iran to Armenian businessmen in the same light,” Sargsyan said.

Referring to investments from Iran, the Armenian President said that the country expects them and he will keep each large project under his personal control. The objective is clear - to bring the economic potential to the level of very developed political relations. “We use only a little part of our potential in the trade and economic sphere. There is good experience of cooperation in the sphere of energy, but it should be expanded to other spheres as well,” Sargsyan said.

Armenia is a beneficial direction for investments, since despite external shocks, it was able to maintain its macroeconomic stability thanks to capable monetary and loan, as well as tax and budgetary policy, Sargsyan added.

In the President’s words, new investment legislation will be drawn out which will help solve possible legal disputes.

Armenia also offers good conditions for entrance to large foreign markets. The country is a member of the Eurasian Union, which means that goods produced here can freely circulate in the 180-million market of the EAEU.

Together with this, Armenia makes use of the GSP+ preferential regime for the export of 6400 items of goods. GSP is also used for export to U.S., Canada, Norway, Switzerland and Japan.

“Armenia also offers good opportunities for the transit of cargo from Iran to the Black Sea and all along to Europe. The North-South route along which concrete highway is constructed is the shortest way for this. The trade and investments will become more effective if obstacles in moving goods between the two countries are removed and cooperation is established between the free trade zones—Iranian Araz (operating) and Armenian Meghri (planned)—on the bank of the Araksriver.

“Finally, the cooperation in the innovation sphere is also very promising. Despite the limited ties with the external world, Iran has achieved great success in nanotechnologies and other spheres of innovation. Here we can join our efforts and intellectual potential to achieve wonderful results,” the Armenian President concluded.
(News.am)