YEREVAN, JULY 31, NOYAN TAPAN. At the July 30 sitting, the Armenian government made amendments and additions to the Government Decision No 1246 of December 24, 2001, on Approval of the Procedure of Granting Certificates of the Country of Origin of a Commodity and Making an Expert Examination. By the amendments, the payment for a certificate of the country of origin to be granted by the RA Chamber of Commerce and Industry has been fixed at 2,000 drams (about 18.5 USD) in case of transportation of agricultural foodstuffs of up to 2.5 tons by natural and juridical persons through the customs border. The certificate will be granted within a working day. For agricultural foodstuffs of up to 2.5 tons made in Armenia, a certificate of the country of origin will be given without an expert examination report. By another decision of the government, an amendment and addition were made to the Appendix No 1 to the Government Decision No 1093 of August 30, 2007, as a result of which the procedure of granting a certificate of phytosanitary inspection has been simplified. It has been established that a phytosanitary certificate for exported plants and products of plant origin will be granted only through a phytosanitary examination, free of charge and within a working day. In the words of Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, these decisions bear evidence of the fact that the government is consistent in creating favorable conditions for small and medium business. "Our studies showed that these amendments will play a significant role in the agricultural sector. We have discussed this issue with the chairman of the State Revenue Committee. The given regime allows small and medium entrepreneurs to independently export and sell their products in Georgia, with a simplified regime being used in this process. When summarized, the results of the past six months show that thanks to small and medium business, our resistibility has considerably increased in conditions of the anticrisis measures - in terms of both the financial resources managed by them and the amount of goods they manufactured. Despite this circumstance, GDP fell by 16%, while power consumption in small and medium business sector grew by 22% instead of declining. This also indicates that the anticrisis measures have had a positive impact because these are indices reflecting the reality. I am convinced the indicated two decisions will significantly promote exports of farmers' economic goods," the prime minister said.

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