Friday, 6 April 2012
SME Development Discussed
Chaired by Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, the Small and Medium-Size Enterprise Development Council met at Government.
“The Council has the key mission of fostering small and medium-size enterprise in our country. The question is of political importance because we will not be able to build a civil society without a well-developed system of small businesses in Armenia. This is why the problem is deemed to have a political dimension along with the economic one. We must build up a solid groundwork for the development of small and medium-size businesses. I am convinced that our joint work will show ways how to solve this task,” the Prime Minister said.
Then, the meeting heard the SME Development Council Secretariat’s report on the work done so far. It was noted that the government subsidizes the procurement of electronic signatures by the SMEs. In particular, they can get them for only 3 thousand 500 drams instead of the 13, 500 drams.
The change of status between office premises and residential areas will be subject to community heads’ decision, but following a simpler procedure. The reform seeks to simplify the process and remove unnecessary barriers to entrepreneurship.
Concerning the procedure applicable to freight transportation, the State Revenue Committee was said to discuss the matter and tackle the bottlenecks existing in this area.
The council suggested amending the government’s decision on the rules established for the transit of goods and transport means through Armenia’s customs space in an effort to improve the business environment and increase the volume of transit cargo.
The meeting discussed a number of questions raised by the business community and issued recommendations in this connection.
