Friday, 27 December 2013
PM Meets Business Community Representatives
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan hosted today Armenia business community representatives in the Government’s Big Conference Hall.
On behalf of President Serzh Sargsyan and himself, the Premier felicitated those present on the occasion of New Year and Christmas holidays, stating in part:
“Dear Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
On behalf of the President and the Government of the Republic of Armenia, I am congratulating you on New Year and Christmas.
2013 was a year of hard work. It is being completed with industry- and agriculture-fostered economic growth. Along with most serious achievements recorded in a number of fields, we have a few areas where the growth rate was quite low. We even faced a recession in construction.
Despite the aforementioned bottlenecks, those present can state that 2013 was a year of new achievements. A new partnership platform is up: progress was made in several sectors thanks to the public-private sector cooperation platform.
First of all, I would like to mention pharmaceuticals, brandy-making, information technologies, where we have stable and continued growth. Noteworthy is that we saw an Armenian drug producer get the first-ever GMP standard certificate this year.
This is an important achievement, because the bulk of the output is exported from the Republic of Armenia, and we have great potential in this field.
The second most important achievement is that we founded Armenia’s first venture fund. I do believe that the World Bank-supported new venture fund may give a strong impetus to the IT sector.
For the first time, we launched a free economic zone in Armenia. I am glad that the Government of the Republic of Armenia has already approved the first project to be implemented in the free economic zone: we will have Armenian tablets and mobile phones, supposed to ensure a progressive pace of development in this sector.
You are better informed about the achievements in each individual industry that I feel can lead to a more successful economic year in 2014.
Dear colleagues, I wish that the year 2014 might bring as much success to your families as to your businesses since, on the one hand, consolidated families are the key to optimism and, on the other hand, they are the source of additional strength and capacity to overcome today’s hardships and strive to new achievements.
In conclusion, please accept my reiterated Season’s greetings.”
