Yerevan/Mediamax/. Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsian stated today that “we face a most serious task of securing free competition”.

Events, devoted to the 10th anniversary of the State Committee for the Protection of Economic Competition of Armenia (SCPEC), were launched in Yerevan today. Heads of anti-monopoly structures from 15 countries of the CIS and Europe, representatives of international organizations, were invited to the event.

Mediamax reports that SCPEC Chairman Artak Shaboyan stated that last year UN experts studied the situation in Armenia and presented an expert report.

He noted that most important directions for development of the sphere and the newest approaches for securing free competitive environment will be discussed with the participants of the event.

Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsian was present at today’s event. He marked the opportunity on the one hand to present the achievements of SCPEC and on the other – define future actions.

“It is not a secret that in countries, like Armenia, which are at the stage of formation of market economy, competition is of priority importance”, Prime Minister stated.

Tigran Sargsian noted that there are a few objective circumstances in Armenia, which hinder free competition: problems of tax and customs administration, the issue of transparency of organizations’ activity, corruption risks, the problem of the society’s attitude, as well as the geopolitical location of the country, and added that measures are taken to address all those issues and legislative changes are taking place.

In his turn, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Secretary General Supachai Panitchpakdi stated that according to their research, a big share of shadow economy is characteristic of the Armenian economy, and SCPEC should not only act as a controller, but also take measures to realize legislative changes.