Yerevan, 26 March 2012 - The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Armenia and the National Competitiveness Foundation of Armenia (NCFA), within the framework of their mandate and missions, largely contribute to the sustainable development and enhancement of national competitiveness in Armenia. The two organizations attach great importance to the public-private partnership development and build their activities predominantly on public-private partnership model. In January 2012, UNDP and NCFA jointly elaborated a four-year community development program for Tatev rural communities, Syunik region. The program is comprised of thirteen sub-projects, focusing on community and tourism infrastructure development, and income generation. Today, Dafina Gercheva, UN Resident Coordinator/UNDP Resident Representative in Armenia, and Arman Khachaturyan, NCFA Chief Executive Officer, signed a Memorandum of Agreement to join the efforts to attract investments for implementation of community development and investment projects in Tatev and surrounding rural communities. “We hope that this will be yet another successful undertaking, which could be further scaled up in the future covering all the communities of Tatev and can alleviate regional disparities and contribute to tourism development in Syunik region,” said Dafina Gercheva. In his term Arman Khachaturyan, CEO of NCFA emphasized the importance of the agreement in the framework of public-private partnership. “This event is a step forward to something more significant. We are committed to our future to direct our efforts towards the preservation of Armenian heritage and spiritual values, as well as development of our tourism infrastructures based on public and private participation framework and instruments thereof”. UNDP and NCFA plan to organize a fundraising event to attract investments from the international organizations, representatives of private and public sectors and other stakeholders.

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