YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 26, NOYAN TAPAN. With the aim of reducing the impact of the global financial crisis on Armenia's economy, a council to propose solutions to problems at Armenian production enterprises will be set up by the instructions of the Armenian prime minister, the head of the sectoral and territorial economic development department of the RA ministry of economy Hayk Mirzoyan announced at the November 26 press conference. In his words, the Armenian government will give state guarantees to small and medium entrepreneurs so that they could avoid possible consequences of the crisis by using the available credit resources. H. Mirzoyan said that 17 billion drams (about 51 million USD) allocated by the Armenian-German Fund will also be spent to assist the country's small and medium entrepreneurship. Besides, negotiations are being conducted with the World Bank on provision of credit resources of 250 million USD for development of small and medium entrepreneurship in Armenia. The department head said that the ministry has developed a concept of state and private cooperation which will soon be submitted to the government for discussion. The ministry has also developed a concept of creation of a free economic zone at Zvartnots Airport, work is being done to prepare a concept of a free economic zone in Gyumri. "The creation of a free economic zone is mainly aimed at the export of Armenian agricultural products," H. Mirzoyan underlined.

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