UNIDO and Armenia strengthen partnership with the signing of the Country Programme 2022-2026

The Government of the Republic of Armenia and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) signed a Country Programme (CP) for inclusive and sustainable industrial development in Armenia 2022-2026. The Country Programme document was signed by Vahan Kerobyan, Minister of Economy and by Anahit Simonyan, UNIDO Country Representative in Armenia.

The new CP represents the first comprehensive programmatic framework concluded between the two parties. It was developed based on extensive multilateral consultations and is aligned with the country’s national priorities as well as the new United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) for Armenia 2021-2025.

Mr. Vahan Kerobyan, Minister of Economy and Mr. Ciyong Zou, UNIDO Managing Director made opening remarks of the Armenia CP signing ceremony.

Mr. Kerobyan said: “The cooperation between the Government of the Republic of Armenia and UNIDO has been efficient in the previous years. The projects carried out throughout this cooperation gave the country a lot of new jobs and helped overcome some of the challenges the country was facing for the period. There are still a lot of challenges ahead of us, and the Government of Armenia has adopted an investment-driven economy program which means we need to significantly change the industrial part of the economy in the overall GDP of the country. 5-year country program document we signed today is in line with our national priorities and will help us improve industrial output and productivity through sustainable economic transformation, industrial diversification, and digitalization based on innovations and technology transfer’’.

UNIDO’s Managing Director Ciyong Zou noted, “The CP has a strong focus on making a sustainable contribution to the Government’s initiatives aimed at fostering economic transformation, industrial diversification and digitalization based on the advancement of innovation and technology transfer,” adding “Strong leadership of the Government in resource mobilization, implementation, monitoring, communication and other important processes within the CP is key to achieving envisaged results.”

The five-year Programme sets out a holistic strategy for enhanced cooperation between UNIDO and Armenia. The CP has the following three thematic components at its core: industrial competitiveness and market access with a focus on innovation and digitalization; sustainable agribusiness and support for SMEs; energy efficiency, renewable energy and sustainable environmental management.

UNIDO has been enjoying a long history of fruitful cooperation with the Government of Armenia in the past twenty years with a solid track record of technical cooperation projects in diverse areas of ISID. Among the examples of joint achievements, through strengthening agro-processing value chains, UNIDO facilitated the establishment of 53 agricultural cooperatives in six provinces of Armenia and provided support to over 700 beneficiaries. Through capacity-building efforts to promote entrepreneurship among women and youth with tailored, need-based and innovative tools, UNIDO helped generate employment opportunities for more than 1,000 people in rural and urban areas. To assist Armenia in its efforts to promote circular and green economy, UNIDO supported the application of renewable energy and innovative technology, including through the establishment of biogas plants and solar water heaters. To help the country tackle the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, UNIDO supported Armenian local garment manufacturing companies with producing 2,623 sets of bed linen and 2,000 medical uniforms.

The CP marks another important milestone in bilateral cooperation between UNIDO and the Government of Armenia. Further scale-up and integration work with an emphasis on measurable and sustainable outcomes will help bring new tangible results on the country’s path towards the achievement of the targets of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9.

In order to effectively manage the Programme, a National Coordination Body will be established, comprising the representatives of line ministries and other development partners to translate leadership and policy decisions into concrete actions on the ground and new joint initiatives.

Mr. Arshak Aslanyan, Deputy Minister of Economy of the Republic of Armenia, H.E. Mr. Armen Papikyan, Ambassador of Armenia to Austria and Permanent Representative of Armenia to UNIDO, representatives from the Ministries of Economy and Foreign Affairs, representatives from UNIDO Headquarter in Vienna and in Armenia participated in the signing ceremony.