Ministry of Economy, donor community discuss priorities for 2011

Today, the first donor coordination meeting in 2011 took place, co-chaired by the Armenian Ministry of Economy and the UN Office in Armenia, UNDP press office reported.

The main objective of the meeting was to discuss with donor organizations operating in Armenia the review of the Republic of Armenia Sustainable Development Program (SDP), export promotion issues as well as enhancement of the framework and areas of cooperation and coordination with donor organizations.

In his opening remarks, Tigran Davtyan, Armenian Minister of Economy, in particular, noted: “Although the main strategic directions in the Sustainable Development Program are still relevant, nonetheless it is necessary to address the main provisions, the expectations from the policy implementation and assessment indicators of its effectiveness. Taking this into consideration, the Government of Armenia, on behalf of the Ministry of Economy, has initiated the SDP review process. Accordingly, donor organizations and international structures present in Armenia have a significant role to play, in addition to civil society institutions.”

During the discussion on the second agenda item related to export promotion, Tigran Davtyan noted that the Ministry of Economy is currently drafting an export-oriented strategy on industrial policy and, in this respect, it is expected that donor organizations in Armenia, in particularly those contributing to the development, such as WB, GTZ, USAID, UNDP, will be the main partners of the ministry.

UN Resident Coordinator, UNDP Resident Representative in Armenia Dafina Gercheva highlighted the importance of the first donor coordination meeting in the upgraded format. “This unequivocally testifies to the government’s willingness to further engage in the donor coordination process, which will increase the donor coordination efficiency deriving from national priorities,” she said.

Dafina Gercheva also attached significance to the first-ever participation of Armenia in the “Survey on monitoring of Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness.” The international community perceives it as a manifestation of joint engagement of the Government of Armenia and donor community in relevant global donor coordination processes.