On 14 December, a regular meeting of the Business Advocacy Network took place in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Armenia (CCI).

At the beginning of the meeting, Advisor to the President of Yerevan CCI Vladimir Amiryan presented the issues on the agenda. The RA Draft Law “On Making Amendments and Addenda to the RA Tax Code” was discussed first.

The proposal of the “Center for International Private Enterprise” (CIPE) which informs that the Center was ready and willing to organize a workshop for capacity development on the topics selected by the Members of the Network was proposed for special consideration.

During the meeting, the issue on introduction of the anti-Corruption Compliance Program in Armenia was discussed as well. Vladimir Amiryan mentioned that a project aimed at implementation of anti-corruption actions which is implemented in cooperation with the Armenian Lawyers’ Association and Corporate Governance Center has already been launched. He presented the key actions to be implemented in the scope of the project.

In this program, the initial step is to understand entrepreneurs’ perceptions and approaches towards the corruption. The participants noted that trained and qualified trainers who passed the training will be able to present to business representatives the measures for fighting corruption, legislative base, etc. It is also notable that in this context the current government has a negative attitude towards corruption schemes, which will allow more effectively cooperating and working with the government.

Vladimir Amiryan noted that the problem here is related to the reaction of the business community in this case as the response from the businessmen is very low, for example, only 3-4 responses are received to the about 1200 emails sent. However as of this moment there are several dozens of businesses involved in the project.

Mariam Zadoyan, the project manager of the Armenian Lawyer’s Association (ALA) component of the “Armenia: Promoting Anti-Corruption Conduct and Reforms” Project noted that they had adopted a different approach to attracting businesses, and the project lawyers in the regions and in Yerevan have an individual approach to each SME, and as a result currently 75 SMEs are involved in the program.

Now the main problem of the program participants is the interest of the business sector in the anti-corruption compliance program and understanding of its importance, because many organizations are not inclined to engage in anti-corruption activities.

The participants of the meeting also decided to cooperate with the business coalition formed within the framework of the EU-funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project.

Notably, the “Armenia: Promoting Anti-Corruption Conduct and Reforms” Project which is implemented by The “Center for International Private Enterprise” (CIPE), the “Armenian Lawyers’ Association” NGO (ALA), the “Corporate Governance Center” (CGC), and the “Yerevan Chamber of Commerce and Industry” (YerCCI), was launched in Armenia on 1 October, 2018.

The main objective of the project is to combat corruption in the business sector, to introduce the Anti-Corruption Compliance Standards within the Armenian business community, which will contribute to dissemination of corporate governance and ethical values in Armenia.

This material has been prepared in the scope of the “Armenia: Promoting Anti-Corruption Conduct and Reforms” Project implemented by the “Center for International Private Enterprise”, the “Armenian Lawyers’ Association” NGO, the “Corporate Governance Center” NGO and the “Yerevan Chamber of Commerce and Industry” with financial support of the National Endowment for Democracy. The project is implemented as a co-financing to the “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” action implemented with the financial support of the European Union by a Consortium comprising the “Armenian Lawyers’ Association” NGO, the “Armenian Center for Democratic Education-CIVITAS” NGO, the “International Center for Human Development” NGO, the “SME Cooperation Association” NGO, the Union of Communities of Armenia, as well as “Agora Central Europe” NGO (Czech Republic). The contents of this material are the sole responsibility of the “Armenian Lawyers’ Association” NGO and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the National Endowment for Democracy and the European Union.