Liana Yeghiazaryan
“Radiolur”
Today the Small Business Support (SBS) of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development held a special event to mark the 10th anniversary in Armenia.
The EBRD supports economic development in Armenia by stimulating enterprise change in small business that have high growth potential. EBRD’s Business Advisory Services (BAS) supports individual enterprises by engaging local consultants for specific consultancy projects, helping the companies to overcome the specific issues and constraints enabling them to meet their growth and production potential. BAS also works with the local consultancy sector to enhance their quality while developing a sustainable and commercially viable market of business advisory services for local companies to benefit from.
BAS Armenia is currently funded by the European Union. Since 2003, BAS Armenia has received €5.9 m in donor funding from Canada, United Kingdom, United States, the European Union and the EBRD Early Transition Countries’ and Shareholder Special Funds. This has been matched by €2.8 m in enterprise client cost-sharing.
In its 10 years of operation in the country, BAS Armenia has undertaken more than 930 projects, engaging over 130 consultants. Sixty per cent of the companies BAS works with are located in the rural areas outside of the main cities. More than 90% of the enterprises reported an increase in turnover and employee productivity while in more than half of the companies there was a significant increase in the number of employees.
