The Armenian Business Coalition is implementing a sub-grant project “
New SME Development Strategy for Armenia” funded by the “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project financed by the European Union.
The Armenian Business Coalition was established on 20 December, 2018. The rules and regulations and the rotation order of the governing board chairman of the Armenian Business Coalition were approved.
In the Armenian Business Coalition, 27 civil society organizations with business membership and business support have been merged.
Founding members of the Armenian Business Coalition are: Shirak Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), Civic Development and Partnership Foundation (CDPF), Association of Social Enterprises of Armenia (ASEA)), “Regional Business Center” Business Support NGO, Impact Business Club (IBC), and Business Support Office (BSO.
The “New SME Development Strategy for Armenia” project targets small and medium entrepreneurship (SME) in Armenia, as well as key issues related to a rapidly growing sub-sector of social entrepreneurship (SE), of which:
- The absence of a new strategy with realistic and up-to-date approaches to the SME sector development in Armenia,
- Mechanisms for the participation of civil society organizations (CSOs) and business associations in the processes in the sector,
- The necessity to carry out multifaceted dialogue on the introduction of the institution of business advocate (Business Ombudsman),
- Necessity of substantial improvement of the state policy on general education, including the development of business education programs, as well as the development and implementation of modern educational programs.
The goal of the project is to develop and submit to the Government of Armenia a widely debated, well-grounded and partly-tested draft of the new SME sector development strategy 2019-2021, which will be essential for the effective organization of the further development of the SME sector in Armenia and will include all of the above-mentioned issues.
The new SME strategy to be submitted to the Armenian government will be developed through communication and meetings organized within the SME dialogue platform.
Within the framework of the project, a pilot project in Gyumri and Gavar will be used for existing tools (e․g․ BizProtect website) to provide operational solutions to the problems. The results of the pilot project will be presented and discussed at the SME dialogue platform.
Together with the Ministry of Education and Science of Armenia, a social entrepreneurship education platform will be established to be tested in Gavar, Yerevan and Gyumri, in one secondary, one vocational and one higher education institutions. The results will be discussed at the SME dialogue platform, and proposals for improving the business education policy will be presented.
As a result of the project, the Armenian Business Coalition will be set up to unite the efforts of all CSOs and associations which protect the interests of this sector.
