YEREVAN, DECEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Armenia and the World Bank signed a US$50 million development policy finance operation to support the Government’s reforms program across key economic areas, reports “Armenpress”.

The Fourth Development Policy Financing (DPF-4), totaling US$50 million, is an IBRD loan with a fixed spread with a 14.5-year grace period and repayment of 25 years.

Gohar Gyulumyan - Senior Economist and Co-Task Team Leader of the World Bank, said the Fourth DPF for Armenia supports a wide range of reforms promoting fiscal, social and environmental sustainability and strengthening competitiveness.

“The operation has started since 2012. The Fourth DPF is the some part of the process started since 2012. During this period significant were carried out at various directions. According to the World Bank estimations, the proposed events are carried out at a sufficient level, including also the Tax Code, about which our professionals have high opinions. The Code leads to optimization of tax legislation, proposes a new administration tool”, she said.

The operation supports several reforms aimed at enhancing environmental safeguard legislation.

In particular, the amendments to the Mining Code to align with the Law on Waste Management will reduce the negative environmental impacts from mining operations and preserve the asset endowment for households in rural areas, which often depend on income from agricultural activity.

Gohar Gyulumyan said another focus area of this operation is improvement in the business environment, through enactment of the amendments to the Law on Bankruptcy, which strikes a better balance between creditors’ and debtors’ rights. The operation also supports increasing transparency and reliability of the financial sector by enacting regulations to ensure disclosure of beneficial ownership of financial institutions and groups.