President holds consultation on US-Armenia economic cooperation agenda

A meeting was held today in the Presidency as part of the RA President-chaired consultations on Armenia’s foreign economic policy to review the current status of US-Armenia trade and economic relations, including the dynamics and the prospects for their development.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the United States Grigor Hovhannisyan reported progress in the ongoing programs, focusing on the target areas of bilateral cooperation, the development goals and the efforts aimed at achieving the short-term and medium-term objectives in a number of promising areas.

Opening the meeting, the President noted that this year marks the 25th anniversary of interstate relations between Armenia and the United States and went on to underscore that the two nations have built up a solid partnership during all these years. Armenia and the United States are cooperating in several areas and, as a result, can boast a high level of mutual understanding.

“The United States have been assisting us ever since Armenia’s independence: the amount of technical and humanitarian assistance provided to Armenia by the US government has reached the mark of about USD 2 billion over these years. This is a serious investment considering the fact that the United States has always supported us in the reform process.

The assistance has gradually grown into economic cooperation resulting more than 800 US-based companies operating in Armenia. I believe that our energy cooperation with ContourGlobal should set a good example for other companies. Lydian International is making significant investments in Armenia’s mining industry, which can serve as a good example of cooperation as well.

You may be aware that we boast a long-standing cooperation in the field of information technologies; what we have today in this field is indeed appreciable, but the potential is much greater here.

Also, I wish to witness my appreciation of those useful reform-targeted efforts made in Armenia by the United States Agency for International Development. Of course, we should not forget about the activities of the American University of Armenia, which has always been a good forge for training economists.

Here, it is very important that the University is constantly developing. Nevertheless, as with other spheres of interaction, we cannot be satisfied with the current status of bilateral relations. There is great potential for development considering the advanced level of the US economy, taking into account their openness for cooperation and, of course, the availability of a powerful Armenian community in the United States. Mr. Ambassador, I would like you to speak about the work done in the field of economic cooperation, as well as about the programs that may boost trade turnover,” President Sargsyan said.

Attended by the heads of all interested ministries and government departments, the meeting conducted an in-depth review of the indicators specified in Ambassador Hovhannisyan’s report. After considering the whole complex of challenges and remedial actions, the President issued a number of instructions.