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UK Government News
September 27, 2012 Thursday 12:13 PM EST
DOING GREAT BUSINESS IN UK AND ARMENIA
LONDON, Sept. 27 -- Foreign and Comonwealth Office issued the following blog:
Phew - here at the Embassy we are just recovering from our first
Ministerial visit in six years.
Mr. Lidington, the Foreign Office's Minister for Europe, was a great
visitor - engaged, full of energy, and really keen to make a
difference in UK-Armenian relations. And we are really delighted that
we were able to use the Minister's visit to highlight a couple of key
priorities for the Embassy over the next year.
First, promoting Armenia's closer links to the EU, including through a
Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA). This would mean
aligning EU and Armenian legislation and practice on a whole host of
areas, like food standards and customs, potentially opening up the EU
market to a lot more Armenian goods, but also making it easier and
cheaper to import European goods to Armenia.
Negotiating this won't be easy - increasing competition for domestic
businesses means some tough political decisions. But we are a great
champion of the EU's work with neighbours. It's the right choice, with
huge benefits for both sides.
The second Embassy priority this year is to put lots more energy into
commercial links. Promoting British business is at the forefront of
our Prime Minister's mind, and the Olympics has been a great showcase
for London and for British brands.
In fact, we have used the Olympics for a PR campaign (visit:
http://www.facebook.com/ThisisGREATBritain) to promote what we think
is 'GREAT' about Great Britain: e.g. entrepreneurship, technology and
innovation, creativity, green industry, sport, heritage, music,
countryside... and of course shopping.
Check out our new graffiti on the Embassy wall. We want to work harder
at encouraging everyone to take a fresh look at Britain, and come to
Britain to work, invest, study, and have fun.
But how well are we doing in Armenia?
Well, we now have an Armenian British Business Chamber, which has
grown from zero to forty companies in two years. There are already a
number of well-established, successful British companies in Armenia
covering sectors like finance (HSBC), pharmaceuticals (Pharmatek),
chemicals and construction materials (Britannia Chemicals).
The presence of British brands on Yerevan's high street has grown and
grown (check out Mothercare, Next, Debenhams, BHS, Tateossian and
Burberry). Look out for a few more favourite British brands, famous
for quality and value for money, which will be opening over the next
few weeks...
But we think we can do better, and we are now planning a business
mission for later in the year to introduce some companies in a few
sectors to the Armenian market. Areas of interest include:
* Mining - Where British companies and consultancies lead the market
in many areas, including environmental assessments.
* IT - The UK specialises in some of the cutting edge R&D in this area
and we are keen to see whether the impressive skills base in Armenia
is something which could be of interest to British companies.
* Engineering and design consultancy - UK companies have a world-wide
reputation for project managing complex construction projects, as some
of the fantastic venues at the Olympics have shown. UK companies are
already involved in the build for the Sochi Olympics, and we want to
encourage them to bid for other key infrastructure projects in the
South Caucasus.
* Education - We have some of the world's best universities,
vocational colleges and business education courses, and we want to
attract students to the UK (including through scholarships like
Chevening), but also export our education overseas. And we speak
English pretty well too...
* Finance - The City of London is the world's premier international
centre and has the expertise to offer services in e.g. pension asset
management, public/ private partnership financing etc.
If you have an idea for an area to develop business links, we would
love to hear from you.
September 27, 2012 Thursday 12:13 PM EST
DOING GREAT BUSINESS IN UK AND ARMENIA
LONDON, Sept. 27 -- Foreign and Comonwealth Office issued the following blog:
Phew - here at the Embassy we are just recovering from our first
Ministerial visit in six years.
Mr. Lidington, the Foreign Office's Minister for Europe, was a great
visitor - engaged, full of energy, and really keen to make a
difference in UK-Armenian relations. And we are really delighted that
we were able to use the Minister's visit to highlight a couple of key
priorities for the Embassy over the next year.
First, promoting Armenia's closer links to the EU, including through a
Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA). This would mean
aligning EU and Armenian legislation and practice on a whole host of
areas, like food standards and customs, potentially opening up the EU
market to a lot more Armenian goods, but also making it easier and
cheaper to import European goods to Armenia.
Negotiating this won't be easy - increasing competition for domestic
businesses means some tough political decisions. But we are a great
champion of the EU's work with neighbours. It's the right choice, with
huge benefits for both sides.
The second Embassy priority this year is to put lots more energy into
commercial links. Promoting British business is at the forefront of
our Prime Minister's mind, and the Olympics has been a great showcase
for London and for British brands.
In fact, we have used the Olympics for a PR campaign (visit:
http://www.facebook.com/ThisisGREATBritain) to promote what we think
is 'GREAT' about Great Britain: e.g. entrepreneurship, technology and
innovation, creativity, green industry, sport, heritage, music,
countryside... and of course shopping.
Check out our new graffiti on the Embassy wall. We want to work harder
at encouraging everyone to take a fresh look at Britain, and come to
Britain to work, invest, study, and have fun.
But how well are we doing in Armenia?
Well, we now have an Armenian British Business Chamber, which has
grown from zero to forty companies in two years. There are already a
number of well-established, successful British companies in Armenia
covering sectors like finance (HSBC), pharmaceuticals (Pharmatek),
chemicals and construction materials (Britannia Chemicals).
The presence of British brands on Yerevan's high street has grown and
grown (check out Mothercare, Next, Debenhams, BHS, Tateossian and
Burberry). Look out for a few more favourite British brands, famous
for quality and value for money, which will be opening over the next
few weeks...
But we think we can do better, and we are now planning a business
mission for later in the year to introduce some companies in a few
sectors to the Armenian market. Areas of interest include:
* Mining - Where British companies and consultancies lead the market
in many areas, including environmental assessments.
* IT - The UK specialises in some of the cutting edge R&D in this area
and we are keen to see whether the impressive skills base in Armenia
is something which could be of interest to British companies.
* Engineering and design consultancy - UK companies have a world-wide
reputation for project managing complex construction projects, as some
of the fantastic venues at the Olympics have shown. UK companies are
already involved in the build for the Sochi Olympics, and we want to
encourage them to bid for other key infrastructure projects in the
South Caucasus.
* Education - We have some of the world's best universities,
vocational colleges and business education courses, and we want to
attract students to the UK (including through scholarships like
Chevening), but also export our education overseas. And we speak
English pretty well too...
* Finance - The City of London is the world's premier international
centre and has the expertise to offer services in e.g. pension asset
management, public/ private partnership financing etc.
If you have an idea for an area to develop business links, we would
love to hear from you.