30th Session of the SME Development Council led by the Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatryan

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Council Meetings

On February 10, the 30th meeting of the SME Development Council was held under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatryan.

The agenda included two items. Within the framework of the first item, participants continued the discussion of the draft Strategic Program for the Development of Entrepreneurship in Armenia for 2026–2030, which had been discussed at the previous meeting (The project has been revised under the “Building Sustainable Apparel and Agribusiness Value Chains in Armenia” project, funded by the European Union and implemented by the International Trade Centre (ITC)). One of the key issues raised during the earlier discussion concerned the body responsible for implementing the strategy. The discussion developed in two main directions: first, the presentation of possible models for the implementing body, and second, the funding model for that body.

At the beginning of the meeting, Deputy Minister of Economy of the Republic of Armenia Lilia Sirekanyan presented the results of discussions held after the previous session regarding the structure, after which members of the SME Development Council expressed their positions, raising questions and making proposals. In particular, speeches were delivered by Hakob Avagyan, President of the “SME Cooperation Association”; Sargis Karapetyan, Director of the Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises NGO; Vahagn Hambardzumyan, President of the Republican Union of Employers of Armenia; Haykaz Fanyan, Director of the Armenian Center for Socio-Economic Studies; Karen Zakaryan, Executive Director of FINARM; and Vladimir Shatverov, Director of the “2B” Business Support Foundation. Speeches were also delivered by Sevak Hovhannisyan, representative of the consulting company Civitta, and Hovsep Patvakanyan, Head of the Investment Council of Armenia. The concluding remarks were delivered by Minister of Economy of the Republic of Armenia Gevorg Papoyan.

Summarizing the discussion, Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatryan emphasized the importance of the proposals presented and instructed the Ministry of Economy to refine the draft and circulate it among Council members to collect their opinions. After the feedback is gathered, the next meeting will be scheduled, during which the selected model of the implementing body and its financing mechanism will be presented.

The second agenda item concerned a draft law on amendments to the Law “On Investment Funds,” proposing to increase the maximum number of participants in a non-public investment fund from 49 to 99.

The issue was presented by Karen Vardanyan, representative of the Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises (UATE). Speeches were delivered by Aram Khachatryan, representative of the Enterprise Incubator Foundation; Vladimir Shatverov, representative of the “2B” Business Support Foundation; Artak Manukyan, representative of the Central Bank of Armenia; as well as Hovsep Patvakanyan, Head of the Investment Council of Armenia. No objections were raised regarding the issue. Moreover, it was emphasized that adoption of the proposal would serve as a significant incentive for attracting financing for IT startups. The concluding remarks were delivered by Minister of Economy Gevorg Papoyan.

As the draft has already been circulated and the feedback collected, Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatryan instructed that the process be continued in accordance with the established procedure.

Funded by the UK Government's Good Governance Fund and supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.