YEREVAN, OCTOBER 18, ARMENPRESS. In the first half of 2017 the volume of foreign investments inflow in real sector of the economy comprised about 1 billion 24 million USD, the direct investments comprised about 328 million USD which increased by 36.6% and 26.3% respectively compared to the same period of 2016, reports Armenpress.

Minister of economic development and investments of Armenia Suren Karayan presented the statistics on investments at a meeting with reporters urging to assess the amount of investments by the net growth of inflow rather than by the volume of money inflow.

“The net growth is the difference of the investments made in the country and the money coming out of the country, of course, the deductions do not mean an outflow of capital”, he said.

The minister also presented statistics on the state assistance to 70 investment programs which currently are at different stages of implementation. “Based on the implementation of programs nearly 493 million USD investments will be made in 2017 and nearly 7300 jobs will be created”, he said. According to the minister, the monitoring showed that already over 250 million USD investments have been made, 3200 jobs have been created.

He said over the past year works have been made for improving the legislative field aimed at attracting investments. “Recently the government approved the new draft law on foreign investments which enables to further improve the protection institute of foreign investors”, minister Karayan said.

He also attached importance to the ongoing works aimed at increasing Armenia’s recognition among foreign investors.