An Armenian-Belgian business forum kicked off in Yerevan on September 15 as part of the program on facilitation of industrial cooperation between entrepreneurs of Armenia and Walloon region of Belgium (ArmenWal). The forum is organized at the initiative of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in collaboration with the Armenian Development Agency and Walloon Export and Foreign Investment Agency (AWEX).
“This is a special forum, as 1.5 year ago the Armenian-Belgian Chamber of Commerce and Industry presented over 100 enterprises to each other. And currently around 20-23 Belgian companies started negotiating on certain programs,” said Armenian Minister of Economy Nerses Yeritsyan.
The Minister expressed hope that several agreements will be signed during the forum, what will allow expanding cooperation in future.
During the forum, Mr. Yeritsyan briefed Belgian entrepreneurs on Armenia’s programs and reforms, opportunities of its economy, as well as ways for reaching regional markets, which can be used by Belgian companies in their cooperation with Armenian entrepreneurs.
For his part, Director of the Armenian Development Agency Robert Harutyunyan said that there are already several projects in various fields: food processing, energy, chemistry, pharmaceutics and innovation technologies. “Out of 66 projects we have selected 33 projects that are in compliance with the UNIDO methodology, they will be presented to Belgian entrepreneurs. The total amount of projects makes around $70mln,” he said.
According to Harutyunyan, all the Armenian-Belgian enterprises will be operating on Armenia’s territory, while their basic goal is to export their production to Europe with the same tax privileges that are currently applicable for the CIS countries.
According to data as of 2009, the trade turnover between Armenia and Belgium totaled $105,322,000, with export amounting to $46,790,000 and import – to $58,531,000.
