Armenia has improved its standing in the World Bank’s (WB) latest Doing Business report, moving up from 47th to 41st position among 190 reviewed nations.
The report released on Wednesday covers a period until May 2018 and, therefore, does not reflect the changes that happened in Armenia since last spring’s government change.
Still, the World Bank has revised Armenia’s economic growth forecast for 2019 slightly upward, expecting 4.3-percent growth instead of the previous 4 percent.
World Bank country manager for Armenia Sylvie Bossoutrot said that they receive positive messages from the new Armenian government. She said that Armenia’s economic growth exceeded the World Bank’s expectations. “And this was due to stronger-than-expected exports, more robust credit growth, remittances and investments. We’ll have to see how things evolve, but the messages that we are hearing – opening businesses, markets, level-playing fields, competition – all are very good messages for investors to hear,” said Bossoutrot. “But we are in a little bit of a period of transition, so we’ll have to wait for this to pass to look back at how things are evolving.”
“Investors like predictability, enforcement, clarity,” emphasized the WB representative, expressing a hope that positive developments will take place in these areas in Armenia soon.
Bossoutrot also highlighted the importance of a new foreign direct investments law to be finalized and passed in Armenia. “I think that that the government is also keen on making sure that it has more targeted investment promotion,” she said.
Armenian entrepreneur Samson Grigorian says the fact that corruption has dropped dramatically in Armenia in recent months has been the most visible change for him.
“A businessman in Armenia is now convinced that nothing will be fabricated against him,” Grigorian said in an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).
The businessman, however, does not see any considerable improvement in terms of easing bureaucratic procedures. “There is still a lot of paperwork, a businessman wastes a lot of time on that… This includes some requirements of the Eurasian Economic Union that does not depend on our government, it is regulated by international agreements,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Armenian government sets itself an ambitious goal in terms of facilitating business in the country.
According to acting Minister of Economic Development and Investments Tigran Khachatrian, the government’s long-term target is to be ranked among the top 10 nations in the World Bank’s annual Doing Business report.
“We have a good example of our neighbor (Georgia). And we see that even under similar economic conditions it is possible to make that progress,” the senior Armenian official said.
Georgia is 6th in the World Bank’s latest Doing Business rankings topped by New Zealand, Singapore and Denmark.