On May 19, 2021, at the Best Western Congress Hotel, Armswissbank – the Implementing Partner of the Programme - organized a seminar-discussion to present the work done in the second phase of the “Scaling up green finance practices in the Republic of Armenia” programme funded by the Green Climate Fund.

The studies referred to the best international practices in the field of “Green” financing and the opportunities for its introduction in the Republic of Armenia. Over 40 participants from programme beneficiary institutions (representatives from the Armenian Ministry of Environment, Armenian Ministry of Economy, the Central Bank, Armenian commercial banks, non-banking financial institutions, and representatives from other state and private companies) attended the seminar.

Executive Director of Armswissbank Gevorg Machanyan, Programme Management Board, Board member of Central Bank of Armenia Hasmik Ghahramanyan, as well as representative of the Ministry of Environment Ruzanna Grigoryan also participated in the event.

The “Scaling up green finance practices in the Republic of Armenia” programme was launched about a year ago which main aim is to conduct a comprehensive study of obstacles to the further development of the “green” financing sector in the Republic of Armenia, to raise the level of awareness, and to introduce an advanced methodology.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the results of the first phase of the program were presented to the beneficiaries online.

Within the framework of the second phase of the Programme, all studies were conducted by international experts from the British company Globalfileds, within the framework of which a comprehensive study of the international best practices of “Green” financing instruments was carried out and proposals on introducing the best practices in the Armenian market were presented. For the representatives of the Armenian financial and banking sector 10-day, 3-hour online seminar has been developed and implemented. The courses were conducted by reputable experts from international organizations such as the Green Climate Fund, the UN Environment Program, the French Export Agency, IPC GmbH, etc.

At the same time, within the framework of this event, there is a plan to design and program a website, where all the beneficiaries will have access to useful materials from the conducted studies, seminars and other areas.

Mr. Andreas Biermann, Director of Sustainable Finance Business Development of UK based Globalfields consultancy company (who participated in the event online) and Project Expert  Tigran Sukiasyan reported on the work done and presented in detail the results of international best practice studies and suggestions for its implementation in Armenia. The speakers emphasized the importance of introduction of international best practices in Armenia, which will ensure the development of the field, including the creation of effective tools and the attraction of affordable investments from international organizations and investors.

Taking into account the great interests in this field, during the event the participants raised many questions about the existing problems, regarding which the answers were given and  approaches for development were presented by Gevorg Machanyan, Hasmik Ghahramanyan, Ruzanna Grigoryan and speakers.

Summarizing the results, Executive Director of Armswissbank Gevorg Machanyan emphasized that to achieve success all parties must show great initiative and activity and work together in this direction, even before the summary of results of this programme.

The full utilization of current green financing opportunities and attraction of highly affordable financial resources as a result are extremely beneficial for the Government of Armenia, the Central Bank of Armenia and beneficiary financial institutions. Gevorg Machanyan expressed his readiness to organize such seminars in the future for the purpose of continuous discussion and substantive solutions of the problems.

At the end of the event, the participants were awarded certificates of participation.