On Thursday, July 22, Deputy Minister of Economic Development of Russia Dmitry Volvach met with Russian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Armenia Sergey Kopyrkin. The parties discussed the development of strategic, trade and investment cooperation between the two countries, the website of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia reports.
Russia is ready to share its experience and advanced solutions in various fields with Armenia, Volvach said.
“Our country can offer effective solutions for the development of transport, energy, social infrastructure, for the implementation of promising investment projects in the Republic of Armenia and Transcaucasia as a whole. Russian companies are ready to provide solutions in the areas of e-government, “smart and safe city”, information security, logistics, energy efficiency, distance education and telemedicine,” the Deputy Minister said.
He said that the states will develop a new Program of Economic Cooperation for 2022–2025, as well as an Action Plan for its implementation. In addition, on behalf of the Minister of Economic Development of Russia and the Minister of Economy of Armenia, a working group is being created under the chairmanship of the deputy ministers of the economy of the two countries on the deepening of economic and investment cooperation.
“It is important to intensify the work of the Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation. We believe it is possible to offer the partners to hold a meeting of the commission this fall, if the epidemiological situation allows. On its “fields” it would be possible to sign the Program of Economic Cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Armenia until 2025 for a new period,” Volvach added.
In addition, the parties discussed the possibility of increasing the tourist flow and measures to increase trade between the countries. Among the key topics of the meeting were also issues of the environmental agenda and interregional cooperation between Russia and Armenia.
Russia is Armenia’s leading trade partner, which provides almost a third (30.3%) of the Republic's foreign trade. Since Armenia joined the Eurasian Economic Union in January 2015 and before the pandemic, the growth in mutual trade has doubled (from $1.26 billion to $2.51 billion).
Despite the decrease in trade turnover between the countries last year, in January-May of this year there was an increase - by 10.7% compared to the same period last year. “We hope that as the economies of our countries recover, we will catch up on lost momentum and open up new opportunities,” concluded Volvach.
