Thursday, 10 October 2013
Other Three Hundred Small, Medium-Sized Businesses May Get Assistance
A Cabinet sitting was held today, chaired by Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan.
The Government amended the 2013 State budget law and one of its previous decisions, necessitated by the loan agreement between the Government of Armenia and the Asian Development Bank under a program aimed at promoting female entrepreneurship in the country. According to the amendment, financial assistance should be provided to 300 operating and startup small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), at least half of which must belong to women or controlled by them. To implement the commitments it is necessary to supplement the guarantee capital of the SME Development Center with an amount equivalent to two million U.S. dollars. The capital was formed during 2004-2013 from the funds raised from the State budget of the Republic of Armenia and international donor organizations. In the meantime, financial assistance has already been provided to 428 operating and 454 startup businesses.
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said the loan available from the Asian Development Bank means that people can submit bids and get loan funds.
The government extended for two more months - until 30 October, 2013 - the term of payment of VAT calculated for goods imported by Aske Group OJSC, the cost of which exceeds 300 million drams.
The meeting next decided to give a three-year extended term of payment of VAT calculated for goods Teghut CJSC, the value of which exceeds 300 million drams. Note that Teghut copper- molybdenum deposit is the second largest in Armenia. Under a new investment program, an ore- processing and concentrate production plant is due to be commissioned in 2015 with an annual capacity 7,000,000 tons of ore.
In order to implement activities under the secondary and higher educational institution ranking program, the Government decided to allocate AMD60mn to National Center for Educational Technologies SNCO.
Regarding the issue, the Prime Minister stated in part: “In fact, we for the first time are introducing a system that would allow universities to encourage competition. In two years, private companies will also have the opportunity to participate in the assessment. The Ministry should monitor the process to be objective. Now we have to ensure that public officials leave the boards of universities, otherwise we will not be able to reach the international standards. We will also need to take up this reform".
By another decision, the Ministry of Education and Science was provided 70 million drams to transfer to the Youth Foundation of Armenia for allocation of scholarships to students of higher educational institutions in the Republic of Armenia. Of this amount, 10 million drams will go to young Armenians from Syria.
In conclusion, the meeting decided to appoint Aramayis Grigoryan to be Governor of Ararat Marz. On behalf of the Government, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan congratulated the newly appointed Governor and wished him fruitful work.
