YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 13, ARMENPRESS. Introduction of new standards for the development of the Armenian economy: the National Interests Fund of Armenia (ANIF) boosted a number of sectors of the Armenian economy.

ANIF CEO David Papazian told ARMENPRESS that ANIF made investments in renewable energy, aviation, restaurant and tourism business, agriculture, as well as shipping.

Papazian said ANIF will soon announce new investments in other sectors that are now under consideration.

Speaking about the achievements in 2022, the CEO said the year was very interesting and productive for ANIF.

“2022 was a year when projects started becoming reality, for example the opening of the Hard Rock Café in Yerevan, the launch of flights of the Fly Arna national airline, and of course the ARFI crowdfunding platform, which was a rather long strategic project which we finalized in November 2022. Last year was the first year for us when we didn’t have any major external shocks, and this in turn certainly contributed to progress because since the platform’s inception in 2019 the years of 2020 and 2021 were rather full of external problems,” Papazian said.

As a result of the activities of ANIF, over $200,000,000 has been invested in the Armenian economy, with nearly 90% invested by partners. Papazian said both the local and foreign companies are standard-based , rapidly developing, innovative companies, with Hard Rock Café Yerevan and Fly Arna serving as the best examples.

According to Papazian, ANIF had a positive impact on the job market too: nearly 800 people received employment. He highlighted two circumstances: these specialists undergo continual training to maintain high professional skills, and secondly these jobs offer above-average salaries.

The launch of Fly Arna national airline was the most important cooperation with Air Arabia. Papazian said that Fly Arna has introduced a new corporate culture in terms of safety and service standards.

“We are now connecting Armenia with the Middle East and Russia and we plan to expand into Europe and East Asia, especially by connecting Europe with India. The company now has 80 employees and it recorded results that were above our expectations. During its entire activity Fly Arna did not have a single flight cancellation.”

Fly Arna is now highly successful financially with its fleet of two aircraft, but given the plans to expand it intends to obtain new planes, but the airport must correspond to it. “We know that there are plans to expand the capacity of Zvartnots airport, which I think was initiated because Fly Arna and other domestic carriers expanded their operations and want to further expand it. If Zvartnots gets bigger, we will be able to expect a lot more visitors in Armenia annually, which is highly important for the overall economic activity,” Papazian said.

Speaking about other projects, Papazian said ANIF’s deal with Masdar is one of the most important projects so far because it pertains to the construction of the first major solar photovoltaic (PV) plant not only in Armenia but in the region.

“Why this matters? First of all, in terms of energy security we will have a plant which is physically located in Armenia and will produce 7% of the country’s total consumption of electrical energy, which is a rather high figure. Secondly, we’ve attracted a renowned company to the country and we are learning from their significant experience. Third, we made a significant deal – electrical energy will cost only 2,9 U.S. cents per kW-h. The course is proceeding as scheduled, i.e. we expect the plant to produce electricity for Armenia in October of 2024, as planned under the contract,” Papazian said.

Among other highlights of 2022, Papazian mentioned that ANIF became an Associate Member of the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds (IFSWF).

Speaking about expectations for 2023, the ANIF CEO said it’s going to be important to launch and implement investments in double-digit quantity of companies through ARFI. The second important direction will be the implementation of new projects and advancing the active companies.

Gayane Gaboyan

Photos by Mkhitar Khachatryan

Cameraman Hayk Barseghyan