On 31 May, the co-owner and director of the marketing agency IMR, Petros Petoyan, announced the findings of a national business survey conducted to learn about the Armenian business community’s priorities after the Second Karabakh war, reported arka.am.

According to Petoyan, the survey showed that about 74% of companies had planned to invest in Armenia before the war, and after the war, some of them abandoned these plans. According to the study, 41% have not changed their plans, 30% have changed plans and are not going to make new investments, 19% have decided to cut planned investments, and 10% have also changed plans, but upward. 

“Small companies (from 1 to 9 employees) have changed most of their investment plans. This is the most vulnerable group of entrepreneurs who did not have additional resources,” Petoyan said. For his part, the operations director of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Armenia, Vladimir Amiryan, noted that medium and large businesses have not radically changed their investment plans, which cannot be said for small companies and micro-businesses that are in a standby mode. He noted that medium and large companies have more resources for long-term planning, which cannot be said about small ones.

Another finding of the study was that 35% of Armenia’s entrepreneurs stated that the government’s ban on imports of Turkish goods has not created any problems for their companies. “The survey showed that Armenian business entities look at the ban as a measure giving them more opportunities and positive aspects rather than obstacles and a negative impact on their businesses,” Petoyan said.

According to him, the companies believe that the embargo was correct, but from a business point of view, preparatory work should have been carried out with manufacturing companies, including the textile sector, which had imported raw materials from Turkey and faced serious problems because of the ban. Petoyan noted that the ban has become a serious obstacle for them, and they want to receive government assistance or at least consultations on the import of similar raw materials from other markets. “This is only the tip of the iceberg; in general, the companies have faced quite serious problems,” he added. According to Petoyan, about 1% of respondents believe that as a result, prices in the Armenian market has become more affordable, 16% believe that it has resulted in inflation, 7% believe that the move has dealt a serious blow to the development of the Armenian economy and 52% consider the ban as a great opportunity for enhancing domestic potential. 

The national business survey on the priorities of the business community was commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Armenia and conducted in February-March 2021 embracing 400 entrepreneurs from both Yerevan and the regions of the country.