YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 10, ARMENPRESS. The Economy Minister Vahan Kerobyan says that many European and American companies are in the process of making investments in Armenia.

In an interview for Herankar about attracting investments in the post-war period, Kerobyan revealed that a major Swedish company plans to open more than 1000 jobs in Armenia in 2021.

“It’s an IT company with 20-22 billion dollar capitalization. It’s one of the most major companies globally in its area. It has offices in Georgia and in several other countries, and now it’s planning to open an office in Armenia,” he said, without disclosing further details. Kerobyan said there are many similar investments underway and the Swedish company is only one example.

Speaking about domestic investors, Kerobyan praised the “many-many” patriotic Armenian investors who are making their share in restoring the economic capacity of their country, hurrying to make investments.  The basis for the investment is the business idea, but Kerobyan says now a new and important factor is adding to this – patriotism. “This doesn’t mean that the businessman doesn’t want to gain profit, on the contrary, given the risks they will try to gain more profit, but the motivation to make investments in this situation increases with their love for country.”

The minister underscored that the government must be able to correctly speak with the investors. He admitted that just like in the past, this isn’t done properly now as well. “Instead of us going and asking investors, persuading them to come to us and make investments, we are actually shunning them. This is still seen in numerous circles of public administration system,” he said, presenting his solutions to the problem. 

He described the state of the country’s economy in one word – crisis – which happened because the economy went through a double disaster in 2020, first the pandemic and then the war.

Asked how he would assess the theoretical return to the 2019’s economic results this year, Kerobyan said that would be the double-digit growth which he has previously talked about. “I’d find that to be a normal result, but certainly we must aim higher. But that itself would be a good result, it is considered a more than optimistic projection today. But surely we have our toolbox for solving this issue,” he said.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan