Venezuelan ex-minister of finance advises Armenia to focus on export

September 10, 2010 - 18:50 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Venezuelan ex-minister of finance, current Director of Harvard’s Center for International Development Ricardo Hausmann said that high rates of GDP growth in Armenia in 2004-2008 could not be preserved at the same level, as it was an unstable growth.

According to him, formation of a more active and diversified economy can secure the country’s development in the post-crisis period. “The key to Armenia’s success will be an export-oriented economy. It will be possible to export agricultural products, information technologies and tourism,” Hausmann told journalists in Yerevan.

During a lecture for Armenian students and lecturers, the professor presented his researches, comparing them with Adam Smith’s studies. “In his researches, Smith revealed that poor countries are 4 times poorer than rich ones. According to 2009 indexes, Congo is the poorest country in the world, where GDP/capita totaled $100, while the U.S. is 387 times richer than Congo, what means that this index has increased by 100 times,” Hausmann said.

For his part, Armenian Minister of Economy Nerses Yeritsyan said that the famous professor’s basic message is that development of a country is based on “courageous steps and various ideas and not in dependence on one idea.”

“Currently we can secure prosperous future for us and make our country more competitive through our knowledge and our decisiveness. The existence of healthy competition and favorable economic environment, development of innovation infrastructures, assistance to medium and small businesses, focus on export, etc are of keen importance in such a small country like Armenia,” the Minister said, adding that the crisis has revealed many shortages of Armenia’s economy, which need to be eliminated.