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 | Titus, Bilirakis lead legislation to sanction Azerbaijani war criminals Representatives Dina Titus (D-NV) and Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) have introduced the bipartisan legislation. Azerbaijan must respect human rights, Scholz tells Aliyev German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called for greater respect for human rights in Azerbaijan. Armenia: Defense Ministry warns against involving army in political processes The Ministry’s statement came after a video surfaced online, showing soldiers joining the protests in Tavush. Scholz hopes Armenia-Azerbaijan peace treaty will be signed this year German Chancellor Olaf Scholz hopes that a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan will be signed this year. |