On 31 August, closed-working discussions on the problems of small and medium-sized enterprises were held within the framework of the EU funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project. The workshop was organized by the SME Association.
42 members-representatives of the 5th congress of the Association, members, were present at the discussion.
The participants were divided into 5 groups and each group discussed SME issues, which were:
- Labour legislation,
- Tax legislation,
- Access to financial resources,
- Automation of business processes,
- Public-private dialogue.
Each group had to identify 10 tasks.
According to Mr. Ruben Osipyan, the moderator of the group discussing labour legislation issues, the labour relations in addition to the state-employer viewpoint should be considered from the viewpoint of the employer-employee as well.
“Our main demands from the state are: 1. Civil-law contracts should be abolished; 2. the issue of illegally signed temporary employment contracts should be resolved. There are vicious phenomena in parctice and we need to find the will to solve the problem,” he says.
Ms Naira Manukyan, President of the SME Partnership Association, was present at the discussion on “Public-Private Dialogue”. She stated that that the first issue to be discussed was copyright infringements.
“The SME Association represents small, medium and start-up businesses and they often have a problem with cash registers. If you are a new, start-up, cash-strapped business and your turnover is very low then acquiring a cash register may not be justified. The issue of doing this through a mobile app until the business is established was being discussed,” Naira Manukyan said.
Mr. Hakob Avagyan, Vice-President of the Association noted that the solution of the remaining issues depended on the dialogue between the state and the private sector.
“The SME Council at the National Assembly has been formed recently. The important thing is that laws and policies are created through this dialogue. We are getting ready for our 5th congress, where the issues discussed today will be summarized and presented to the representatives of executive and legislative branches,” Hakob Avagyan said.
The results of the discussion will be summarized at the 5th congress of the SME Association.
