“State management needs improvement.” Arsen Ghazaryan

On April 30, the members of the Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen of Armenia met with the RA Minister of Economy, Gevorg Papoyan, on the Minister’s initiative.

Representatives of the Ministry’s staff were also present at the meeting.

Expressing his gratitude for the readiness to organize such meeting, the President of the UMBA Arsen Ghazaryan noted that the Union’s dialogue with the Ministry, which coordinates the field of economy has always been periodical, during which both strategic issues related to the economy and current urgent issues were discussed.

“Our Union has both traditions and a desire for a constructive dialogue with the state,” said the President of the Union.

In his speech, Gevorg Papoyan emphasized the importance of the meeting with industrialists and businessmen, the purpose of which is to hear from the first source the problems existing in various sectors of the economy, to try to jointly find solutions to them.

The Minister assured that he and the staff of the Ministry will always be ready for dialogue with businessmen, joint discussions, and joint steps contributing to the progress of the economy.

According to Arsen Ghazaryan, within the framework of cooperation with the state institutions, the UMBA has adopted the tactics of not only raising problems, timely alarming, but also finding and offering solutions to the issues that have arisen. In this regard, he emphasized the existence of cooperation difficulties in the state administration system, and as a result many initiatives, proposals, applications are waiting for their answers for a long time or receive an incomplete response.

“State management needs improvement. When the proposals do not reach the addressee, people initiative also weakens”, said the head of the UMBA. New realities pose new challenges to business: diversification of export markets, product quality, increasing competitiveness, product standardization, certification, insurance, logistics issues.

The Minister of Economy of the RA gave a detailed answer to the raised questions, assuring that practically no problem will remain without attention. He specifically mentioned that previous business support programs will be continued, while new programs aimed at stimulating the economy will be developed, including those aimed at manufacturing industry and export.

According to him, it is planned to create an investment council to coordinate the works and increase efficiency. An institution dealing with the commercialization of innovation will also be created, which will contribute to the convergence of science and economy. “In all cases, we expect to receive and discuss new proposals and ideas from the business community as well,” said Gevorg Papoyan.