Monday, 17 September 2007
RA Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan received the IMF delegation led by Deputy Director of Eastern and Central Asia Department of the IMF Lorenzo Peres. The delegation also featured head of the IMF Armenia Mission Ms. Martha Castello-Branco.
Greeting the guests, the Prime Minister said to be pleased with the day-to-day dynamic pace of Armenia's cooperation with the IMF and expressed his appreciation of the assistance provided to the Republic of Armenia in addressing the problems available.
Mr. Lorenzo Peres mentioned that our country enjoyed positive development indicators and it was a great pleasure to work with the government of Armenia. According to him, a main challenge for the next few years would be making a shift towards the new cycle of development marked by facilitated economic competition and higher investments. Here, he mentioned the importance of ensuring good governance and increased tax collection, which in turn might be achieved through greater ease in economic competition, higher efficiency in public administration and enhanced transparency in all these processes.
Mr. Lorenzo Peres asked the Prime Minister about the current status of Armenia's economy, the challenges faced, the ways to their solution and the outlook for economic development.
By noting that the Government Program specified the targets for tax collection, the Prime Minister expressed confidence that it would be possible for his government to outrun the planned indicators in this area. He stressed that the government was determined to operate certain changes in the structure of the GDP. According to the Prime Minister, this could be achieved through a stronger focus placed upon industry and agriculture, as well as by increased share of the financial sector.
Head of the IMF Armenia mission Ms. Martha Castello-Branco voiced her views on a number of issues and expressed satisfaction at the emergence of the financial intermediation system within Armenia's financial market. She further spoke about the need of developing the domestic capital market and providing greater support to small and medium-size businesses throughout the country.
During the meeting, Mr. Lorenzo Peres mentioned that in working with the Armenian government, the IMF sought to cooperate towards the implementation of the PRSP. In this framework, the fund had assumed responsibility for monitoring the progress with program implementation. The present round of inspections will be completed by the spring of 2008. Then he asked the Prime Minister about the government's plans for continuing the cooperation with the IMF.
Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan answered that Armenia constantly needs maintaining and developing the cooperation with supporting partners.
