Small and medium-sized enterprises play a key role in Armenian economic life, and investments are the main fuel of the country’s economic system. After the world economic crisis of 2008, the sum of annual foreign investments to Armenian business dropped considerably, and the government had to call on its international financing partners for help. Russia was the first to answer the call, granting Armenia a 500 million dollar credit for 4 years. This credit contributed greatly to the country’s stabilization.
If Russia didn’t ask Armenia to render an account of how it spent the credit, other international structures, such as the IMF, World Bank and Asian Bank, granted purpose loans only. The major part of these credits was aimed at ‘supporting and developing democratic institutions’ and was supervised by US and European firms. Therefore, Russian allocations had a greater impact on Armenia’s economy restoration than all European and US loans put together.
One might wonder why the numerous and economically-strong Armenian Diaspora didn’t invest in Armenian business when it was in such a grave situation. The collective financial potential of Armenian entrepreneurs living abroad is rumored to be higher than 500 billion dollars. However, Armenia itself doesn’t profit from this enormous capital directly, ethnic Armenians only donate sums in the framework of patriotic events. As for business investments, they are virtually nonexistent.
The Armenian government, for its part, does nothing to create friendly conditions for diaspora investments. Moreover, they do their best to stop some diaspora representatives from helping Armenian business. For example, the Armenian authorities tried to prosecute Narek Aratunyan, diaspora magnate and philanthropist, and his non-profit Art Union “Narekatsi”, despite the fact that the Armenian Ministry of Culture highly appreciates Arutyunyan’s efforts and even decorated him and his organization with the highest medal of the institution.
The nonprofit Art Union “Narekatsi” was founded in 2002 in the USA, aimed at conserving and promoting Armenian culture. Since 2004, Armenian philanthropists have stopped limiting themselves to the cultural field of activity and started investing in Armenia’s social life. Aratunyan also started investing in construction and food production in Armenia.
However, as a result of his philanthropic endeavors, Aratunyan and his family found themselves in at the centre of a big judicial scandal orchestrated by the Armenian authorities. He was accused of tax fraud, however, Aratunyan himself claimed that he actually overpaid 20 million drams and said that the Armenian authorites are not interested in investing in the cultural and social development of the country. According to the businessman, the government wants to misappropriate all his activities in the country.
A lot of cultural figures supported Aratunyan and pointed out that the government only talks about national cultural interests, while in reality it only scares away investors.
David Stepanyan, exclusively to VK
