Gevorg Papoyan said that a “diversification” of the Armenian economy will be one of his top priorities. But he did not clarify just how and when he thinks the Armenian government could achieve it.
“The diversification of the economy is a process as a result of which Armenia will be proportionally dependent on the world and countries of the world will, for their part, be dependent on Armenia,” Papoyan told reporters after attending his first cabinet meeting in the new capacity.
He described Egypt as one of the potential new markets for Armenian goods. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian attended an Armenian-Egyptian business forum during an official visit to Cairo earlier this week.
The current volume of Armenia’s trade with Egypt is negligible and is not even specified in macroeconomic data regularly released by the Armenian Statistical Committee.
By comparison, Russia accounted for over 35 percent of Armenia’s $20.7 billion foreign trade and more than 40 percent of its $8.4 billion exports last year. It has long been the main export market for Armenian food products.
The sharp deterioration of Russian-Armenian relations and Armenia’s ongoing reorientation towards the West are raising growing questions about local manufacturers’ continued access to the vast Russian market. Some Armenian cargo firms shipping goods to and from Russia say Russian customs officials have warned them that they will soon stop processing their trucks.
Gevorg Ghukasian, the chief executive of one such company, was skeptical about Armenia’s ability to significantly diversify its foreign trade in the near future.
“We must put aside our rosy glasses: our market is Russia,” Ghukasian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Papoyan said he has received no “information” about the impending closure of Russia’s sole border crossing with Georgia for Armenian cargos. He said he sees no “objective reasons” why the Russians would block imports from Armenia.
They already did so last November, citing food safety concerns. The move was widely construed as a warning to Yerevan.
The chief of Pashinian’s staff, Arayik Harutiunian, declared at the time that Diaspora Armenians can offset a Russian trade embargo by buying more food and beverages manufactured in Armenia.
“No closure of the Lars checkpoint [at the Russian-Georgian border] will affect us if Armenian business finds new markets on the holiday and non-holiday tables of our compatriots living abroad,” Harutiunian said in a statement ridiculed by Pashinian’s critics.