In order to attract investments in Armenia, it is necessary to change the structure of the country's economy, Armenia’s Economy Minister Vahan Kerobyan said in his speech at the Orion Summit 2023 in New York.

The minister said that state of Armenia’s economy is quite good: last year we had one of the highest economic growth in the world - 12.6% economic growth, and in 2023 we have the same economic growth rate - more than 12%.

"The situation in the labor market is also very good, a few hours ago the Prime Minister of our country mentioned that a new record of the number of jobs created has been set: 718,000 jobs. This economic situation is the result of the reforms we initiated in recent years aimed at developing and liberalizing the business environment, attracting investments.

The programs that we have launched are aimed at supporting new ideas, new investors, promoting modernization, some of them are very successful. I want to single out the economy modernization program, which has given an opportunity to support 2,000 companies in the last year to modernize their equipment, functions, and attract highly qualified employees," said the minister.

According to him, one of the important emphasis of Armenia's economic policy is attracting investments.

"For this, we need to really change the structure of our economy so that our economic growth model changes from consumption-based growth to investment-based growth. Last year's results were quite good. For the first time, we closed the year with a direct investment index of 1 billion, which is more than 5% of our GDP. And the index of all types of investments for the year was 4.2 billion dollars or about 22% of GDP, which is a very good result compared to previous years' indicators,” he said.

Presenting the nuances of Armenia's investment policy, the minister said that the main idea is to focus on bringing 500 successful (Fortune 500) companies to Armenia, companies that spend twice as much on research and development as the whole world combined.

"We can say that we have some success here as well. We managed to bring to Armenia one of the largest companies in the world – Nvidia, as well as Cisco, AMD, Oracle, Adobe and other companies. "Recently, the Microchip Technology company acquired an Armenian startup worth 50 billion dollars," said Vahan Kerobyan.

According to the minister, another good news is that the largest American banks started investing in state bonds denominated in Armenian dram. "This is very good news for us and it shows that these American banks are interested in Armenian government bonds. Chinese banks have also invested in state bonds in Armenian drams," said Vahan Kerobyan.

"Today, our partners of Enterprise Armenia will be happy to discuss your ideas with you on how you can implement them in the Armenian economy. Also, our partners from ANIF are also here to describe, demonstrate the tools that will help invest in Armenia. Our big team, which also includes the Minister of High-Tech Industry, Robert Khachatryan, is here to discuss and support your possible ideas to invest in Armenia," the minister summed up his speech.

More than 100 guests from seven countries of the world, including the USA, Canada, Great Britain, the Netherlands, etc., are participating in the Orion Summit 2023. The summit is also attended by more than 60 guests from Armenia, including representatives of three banks, well-known brands, businesses and startups.

Among the guests of the summit are representatives of the New York City Hall, economic development specialists who are interested in cooperation with Armenia.

NEWS.am Tech is the official media partner of Orion Summit 2023.