Around 80 U.S. companies operate in Armenia

About 80 U.S. companies operate in Armenia. They cover various sectors of economy, such as IT, banking, tourism and hospitality, manufacturing, etc. Executive Director of American Chamber of Commerce in Armenia (AmCham) Diana Gaziyan told Armenpress that these, as well as heavy industry, are the spheres which are of particular interest for U.S. companies. According to her assessment, even though there are some obvious issues hindering the development of business in Armenia, the country’s business legislation is rather liberal and foreign investment oriented. There is no need to create new laws; the fair application of the existing ones will be enough. The country is quite attractive from doing business perspective, which is proven by the fact of the presence of some major international players. According to the Armenian Statistical Service, the U.S. investments in the real sector of the economy during the January-September were 15 million 783,3 USD. This index, though, as compared with the same span of the past year, reduced by 27,9%. D. Gaziyan says because of AMD depreciation in Armenia attractive sectors are those which export or add value or manufacture here. The American Chamber of Commerce in Armenia has been operating in Armenia since 2000. Currently, AmCham has around 80 member companies, which represent various sectors or economy, such as financial services, insurance, banking, energy and mining, information technologies, consumer goods, manufacturing, tourism, marketing and promotion, infrastructure development, internationals organizations, etc. AmCham is a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and European Council of American Chambers of Commerce. The executive director assures that one of the most important areas of AmCham activities is lobbying for the business interests of its members in its strive to create more competitive business environment in Armenia. AmCham creates opportunities for its members to network, enlarge the scope of their business contacts and find new partners. D. Gaziyan says another important direction is increasing the business relations between Armenia and Turkey, and AmCham realizes that the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border will have a significant impact on the business environment development in Armenia. AmCham is issuing its Quarterly Business Magazine, each issue of which is devoted to a specific topic. For example the last issue was devoted to real estate prices in global financial economic crisis conditions, while the upcoming one will be devoted to the business consequences of possible opening of Armenia-Turkey border.