Armenia’s economy needs human capital to use high potential – economist

In an interview with Tert.am, economist Tatul Manaseryan shared his comments on the government-approved investment policies, appreciating the conceptual approach as an effective mechanism to boost investments.

“I think it is important to focus on the more attractive branches of Armenia’s economy and offer favorable conditions to investors. But I would avoid distinguishing between foreign and domestic investors. I think it is equally important for us to give attention to boosting domestic investments, which for many years have been simply disregarded,” he said.

Unless we make investments on our own, no foreigner will ever trust Armenia’s economy, the specialist added. “I find that very important, so the first step depends on us. And that has to be a holistic system of scientifically supported approaches. To make the area attractive, we have to understand ourselves which factors are likely to have a positive or negative impact on Armenia,” he said.

As an important factor, the economist underlined the need of appropriate efforts to inspire trust among Diaspora investors and foreign businessmen. “Otherwise, the investments will be political in nature. The countries making investments today pursue political interests and are politically motivated,” he noted.

Another key factor, he said, is the developed countries’ practice to focus much attention on knowledge economy. Manaseryan called for using Armenia’s potential in the IT sector, which he said is really considerable.

“I do believe in Armenia’s development [perspective] and think that our abilities and potential are really high. It is especially important to make investments in human capital, in which case we can really expect outcomes,” he added.

As for the existing obstacles, the economist attributed them to only objective factors. “Armenia is a continental country, facing a blockade and a paramilitary situation. So the obstacles have objective reasons and are very often not dependant on us,” he noted.