Armenia Economic Report 2016 with annual topic Economic Integration of Syrian Refugees in Armenia was presented in Yerevan today.

The Armenia Economic Report (AER) is an annual periodical, developed and published by the Economic Development and Research Center (EDRC) with the support of the Private Sector Development South Caucasus (PSD SC) program, implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

The report was elaborated in cooperation with the Armenian Ministry of Economic Development and Investments.

According to EDRC Chairman Mushegh Tumasyan, the main goal of the report is to analyze economic policies and developments in Armenia, raise awareness about urgent economic issues and design relevant policies to address them.

“Each edition sums up the previous year’s economic trends and sparks debates around specific economic topics. The AER 2016 particularly focuses on economic integration of Syrian refugees in Armenia,” he added.

“Private sector has seen challenging times over the past years. Overall, 2016 was marked with global economic slowdown, which naturally affected economic developments in Armenia as well. The society is expecting more tangible achievements and higher economic indicators than we currently register. On the other hand, tough periods are beneficial for us: they reveal the weak links and make us more competitive and resilient,” said Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Investments of Armenia Tigran Khachatryan.

Wilhelm Hugo, team leader of the GIZ PSD SC project component in Armenia, emphasized that in the name of German government, they support sustainable economic development for a green and inclusive economy in Armenia.

According to Wilhelm Hugo, the development will be based on the cooperation between the private and public sectors.

“We believe that the socio-economic research of section 2 of the report with a focus on economic, but also other dimensions of integration of Syrian Armenians in Armenia will help shed more light on facts, needs, challenges and opportunities, what has been done so far, and what still could be done at various levels by various stakeholders for the benefit of the target group and for Armenia as a whole,” said Hans Joachim Zinnkann, team leader of the GIZ PSD SC project component Economic Integration of Syrian Refugees in Armenia (EISRA).