Armenia joins SME competitiveness-oriented EU Program COSMEDecember 11, 2015 - 11:32 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Economy Minister Karen Chshmarityan and European Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs Elżbieta Bieńkowska signed Thursday, December 10 an agreement on Armenia's participation in COSME (Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Programme), to come in force in January 2016. As Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development National Center reports, Armenia is the second Eastern Partnership country (after Moldova) to join COSME, reaffirming its continued efforts aimed at developing economic cooperation with the European Union. Armenia joined the Enterprise Europe Network, a key component of COSME that helps SMEs develop and facilitate their internationalization, providing access to the EU market and the innovative technologies. COSME will support projects on clustering, female entrepreneurship, reducing administrative burden for companies and intellectual property rights protection for firms operating in non-EU countries. COSME is an EU Program aimed at strengthening the competitiveness and sustainability of SMEs, set to run from 2014 to 2020 with a budget of €2.3bn. Armenia is the seventh country outside the EU to join and contribute to the Program, after Montenegro, Macedonia, Moldova, Turkey, Albania and Serbia. Top stories Yerevan has dismissed Turkey’s demand to shut down the Armenian nuclear power plant as “inappropriate”. Armenia will loan 2.9 billion drams to Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh), according to a draft government decision. The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan has “strongly condemned” Armenia’s decision. Kerobyan has said that for the first time in the history of Armenia, the volume of foreign direct investments amounted to about $1 billion. Partner news | Concept to complete Yerevan Cascade discussed at city hall A conceptual proposal to complete the Cascade complex in downtown Yerevan has been presented by Jean-Michel Wilmotte. Pashinyan visits flood-hit region Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Saturday, June 8 visited the disaster area in the Lori province. €3.5 mln EU grant to support justice reforms in Armenia The European Union has paid €3.5 mln grant to Armenia within a €11mln program on Support to Justice Reforms. Yerevan reacts to Baku’s proposal to see Minsk Group abolition Alen Simonyan has declared that Armenia is taking steps aimed at concluding a peace treaty with Azerbaijan. |