EU's Strengthening the Investment Promotion and Investment Policy Institutional Framework of Armenia Twinning Project was summed up today in Yerevan.

The project is aimed at supporting the Armenian government’s efforts in boasting foreign investment attraction for providing economic growth in Armenia.  

The project was implemented by Business France, EU-financed French government agency for foreign investment and export development.
 
The total budget of the program made EUR 810 k.

Over the course of sixteen months, Armenian professionals were introduced to the best European practices within the framework of the project. 20 European experts presented effective business tools for attracting investment, approved by Business France, to specialists from the Ministry of Economic Development and Investments and Development Foundation of Armenia (DFA).

Sectorial investment strategies were created and developed, targeting certain investment sectors, while SWOT analyses were carried out, including comparative analyses with other countries.

Promotional materials about Armenia were elaborated, and a database of potential investors was established.

As a result of the campaign to promote Armenia’s investment environment in France, organized by DFA in partnership with Business France, DFA established connections with 136 companies, which resulted in 9 new opportunities and 11 investment projects.

According to Deputy Minister of Economy of Armenia Garegin Melkonyan, EU Twinning Project has operated in Armenia in three main directions: elaboration of favorable investment policy and strategy, application of certain tools for investment promotion and post-investment support.
 
“Promotion of investment does not end once the process of investing is concluded. We need to work with investors even after investing to let them develop their businesses further. This will not only keep business in Armenia, but also help attracting new investments into the country,” he said.

According to Ambassador of France to Armenia Jean-Francois Charpentier, the cooperation within the frames of EU Twinning Project was “saturated and productive”.

He expressed his content with the opportunity to support Armenia in elaboration of investment attractiveness policy and investment attraction at this important stage in the Armenian economy.

Director General of Business France Caroline Leboucher also highly estimated the efficiency of EU Twinning Project in Armenia.

“Armenia mainly lacks recognizability from the point of investment attractiveness. You need to make the whole variety of tools of your investment “arsenal” visible to the world. The main purpose of this EU-financed program is developing bilateral cooperation with Armenia and increasing its recognizability at the same time,” Caroline Leboucher emphasized.