President: current problems have no major effect on free competition in Armenia

YEREVAN, January 21. /ARKA/. The current problems in the competitive field do not have major effect on free competition and the development of Armenia, Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan said in his interview to the Armenian service of Radio Liberty.

According to Sargsyan, his statement is proved by two unbiased factors. 

The first factor is the ratings by prestigious international organizations. 

“As you know, in 2012 we recorded a great progress, and we are today the 32nd in the world on that indicator. It means we are among the first 20% of the states. Is it a bad indicator? It is a modest, yet quite a good achievement,” the president said.

Sargsyan said that the second criterion is the treatment showed by businessmen toward taxation agencies. Hostility between those two is disappearing slowly, according to the president. Sargsyan expressed confidence that Armenian businessmen will realize the necessity for paying taxes soon.

The president also said new conclusions should be made on existence of monopolies. According to him, monopolies may occur because of the Armenian environment, the laws and the authorities, but also because of the objective conditions, communications, inaccessible markets and etc.

“When we speak about starting a business, developing a small or a medium business, I would like that everybody, finally, have the courage to say in public that, of course, the state should do everything, and, of course, the authorities should do a lot. But are all people able to do a business?” Sagsyan said.

Both personal qualities and accessible resources are required to start a successful business, according to the president.

“Today the average bank interest rate is 11% for foreign currency credits and a bit higher, 12% for credits in drams. Compared to 2008, it is 3% lower, both for credits in drams and in foreign currency. But is 11% enough low to enable people take out a loan?” Sargsyan said. 

According to the president, little focus on training of people is also a problem. Businessmen should understand what they deal with, especially the ones having small and medium businesses and not able tot take advantage of consulting services, he said.

“Yes, there are problems, there are Armenian companies that have a dominating status, there are Armenian public agents who try to misuse their position, there are Armenian businessmen who want to hold a monopoly in the market, no doubt about all this. That is why we create respective instruments and try to improve the existing ones,” Sargsyan said.

The president expressed satisfaction with the efforts made by the anti-monopoly commission. The progress is recorded for all markets, which is confirmed by an international monitoring organization, Sargsyan said. –0--