Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

Unequal conditions, corruption, dishonest competition, high unemployment among youth and other issues complicate implementation of any program to develop the Armenian economy, reads a report by the Expert Center for Eurasian Development.

The ECED report titled “Map of investment attractiveness of the countries of Central Asia and South Caucasus” reveal that Armenia faced with serious economic problems in 2016.

The authors remind that Armenia’s GDP declined by 2.6 percent for the year. The unemployment rate in Armenia hit 18.1 percent last year, which was the highest figure among the countries of Central Asia and South Caucasus.

The state debt also remained among the highest in the CIS and accounted for 42.23 percent of GDP, the report says. A year earlier, this figure was lower and made 37.5 percent.

“Armenia's GDP per capita in 2016 remained low – it was $3,800. Armenia’s trade balance following the results of last year was negative,” the document reads.

The document reads that it is planned to create only 50,000-60,000 jobs in the regions of Armenia until 2025 , which is clearly not enough.

The authors of the document also note that Armenia has a very difficult transport situation and the country is actually isolated.

“Because of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Armenia has no economic relations and transport links with Azerbaijan and Turkey. There are also difficulties in relations with Georgia that separates the republic from its main economic partner – Russia, which complicates the use of existing transport infrastructure,” the report reads.

The authors say that only 40 kilometers of border with Iran allows providing transport accessibility for Armenia, but because of geographic conditions and mountainous terrain the capacity of this direction is limited.

The ECED report also notes that the tension and unpredictability in the domestic political situation of Armenia are high.

The economy of the country remains critical, demonstrating unbelievably low indices each year. Descending economy, high poverty and increasing outflow of people are the pure realities in Armenia, which lack any governmental scenario or program to change the situation.

Besides, the conflicts with neighbors, including the occupation of Azerbaijani territories, territorial claims, and nonsense about the so-called “Armenian genocide” do not allow the country to join any regional project and gain any benefits.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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