Oct 14, 2011

Already Close to 300 Laws Analysed to Prevent Possible Negative Impact on Businesses

From the beginning of this year the special team of the Ministry of Economy has carried out regulatory impact assessment on nearly 300 laws and decrees that might have an impact on the legal environment concerning small and medium enterprises and competition.

Deputy Minister Karine Minasyan who is in charge of the assessment team, or the RIA team as it is called informally, says that the purpose of such evaluation is simply to make sure that life is not made more difficult for businessmen as a result of any new piece of legislation concerning small and medium enterprises and competition.

"We analyse every new law or decree that might have an impact on those fields and then decide whether they have a positive or negative impact. In the latter case we will send it back with our suggestions on how to make it better," Mrs. Minasyan says. “For instance, we have already sent back 60 initiatives that would have resulted in an additional burden to businesses.”

The Deputy Minister explains that such process will in the long run have a very positive impact on the Armenian economy as a whole.

"Basically what we do is look after the interests of businessmen during the legislation process with the aim of having a transparent and competitive business environment. Such assessment helps save taxpayers' money and time and make Armenia an attractive place for international investors as well," she points out.

Head of the RIA team Paruyr Jangulyan admits that the beginning of the project had its difficulties and that several shortcomings still have to be solved.

"We are talking about a huge amount of information we have to process, also we would like the public awareness to be higher. But we have a very good network and receive support from our colleagues. Also a manual on the process will be ready soon, which will make things easier for everyone," Jangulyan says. "A good sign is also that people involved in drafting legislation have started to ask for our expert advice."

From the beginning of the year the RIA team of the Ministry of Economy has analysed close to 300 laws and decrees to determine whether they might have a negative impact in the fields of SMEs and competition. In addition to the 60 cases, which would have had a negative impact, there were also 50 cases with a possible positive impact. In 10 cases the draft laws were sent back with instructions to provide additional information and argumentation. Regarding the rest of the laws and decrees it was determined that they would have no impact on those areas whatsoever.


Jangulyan explains that the most common negative impacts that they ascertained included additional reporting obligation or additional requirements for getting licenses and permissions.

"Obviously, for businessmen this would mean having to spend more time and money and is thus negative for the entire Armenian economy. However, I'm happy to point out that the positive impacts that we determined would achieve exactly the opposite - decreasing bureaucracy, facilitating cross-border trade and making the starting and closing of businesses easier," Jangulyan says.

The regulatory impact assessment is carried out under EU twinning project "Support to the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Armenia: Regulatory Management / Standard Cost Model". The duration of the project is from February 1, 2010 until May 24, 2012. The project is funded by the European Union, with a budget of 1,100,000 Euro. The project objective is to develop a regulatory management programme that helps to make administrative practices more transparent and decrease the administrative burden in order to increase the attractiveness of Armenia for investors. The Member State partner of the project is HAUS Finnish Institute of Public Management.

Oct 13, 2011

High-Level Armenian Officials Gained Experience on Better Regulation in Finland and Estonia

Five high-level officials from the Armenian Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Justice and the Prime Minister's Office attended a study tour to Finland and Estonia this fall to look into local practice and experience in the fields of better regulation and regulatory impact assessment.

According to the member of the high-level study tour, Ministry of Economy's Deputy Minister Karine Minasyan, the study tour was a good opportunity to get to know best practice regarding better regulation right on location.

"We have been carrying out the regulatory impact assessment only from the beginning of this year and it has already provided good results. Better regulation helps to save taxpayers' money, reduces bureaucracy and makes our business environment attractive for both local and foreign investors. So, we are obviously interested in improving our legislative process even further to make sure that, for instance, in the case of the Ministry of Economy, the interests of businessmen are really looked after in the process of law-making," Mrs.Minasyan points out.

The Deputy Minister said that although the schedule was rather gruelling, the study tour was very satisfactory. “We have a confirmation that Armenia is heading in the right direction with the regulatory impact assessment and got some new ideas on how to proceed,” she concluded.

The high-level study group consisting of Deputy Ministers, Chiefs of Staff and Department Heads visited the Ministry of Employment, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Justice and the Prime Minister's Office in Finland and Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications in Estonia. The topics covered include among others regulatory impact assessment, governmental services quality assessment, e-filing in the taxation system, service centres, e-society and inspection system.

The regulatory impact assessment is carried out under EU twinning project "Support to the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Armenia: Regulatory Management / Standard Cost Model". The duration of the project is from February 1, 2010 until May 24, 2012. The project is funded by the European Union with a  budget of 1,100,000 Euro. The project objective is to develop a regulatory management programme that helps to make administrative practices more transparent and decrease the administrative burden in order to increase the attractiveness of Armenia for investors. The Member State partner of the project is HAUS Finnish Institute of Public Management.

From the beginning of the year the RIA team of the Ministry of Economy has analysed close to 300 laws and decrees to determine whether they might have a negative impact on small and medium enterprises and competition.