FMCG Committee Virtual Meeting

On 9 September, 2020 AmCham Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) Committee Waste Management Working Group and AmCham Executive Team held a virtual meeting with the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of RA (MTAI), and the Ministry of Environment of RA (ME) to discuss the planned Armenia Marketplace Waste Management Assessment – Survey
and share the Terms of Reference (ToR) details. It is expected to have the assessment by 2021.

Mr. Vache Terteryan, Deputy Minister, MTAI; Ms. Narine Avetyan, Department Head of Territorial Capital Programs Support and Solid Waste Management, MTAI; Mr. Sergey Sarukhanyan, Division Head of Solid Waste Management, MTAI, Mr. David Shindyan, Department Expert, MTAI; Ms. Mary Harutyunyan, Chief Specialist, Strategic Policy Department, ME; Ms. Irina Hakobyan, Chief Specialist, Department of Hazardous Materials and Waste Policy; ME, Ms. Elina Markaryan, Public Affairs and Communications Director, Coca-Cola HBC Armenia, Chair of AmCham FMCG Committee; Mr. Harutyun Alpetyan, Circular Economy Expert, AUA Acopian Center for the Environment participated in the meeting. The meeting was chaired by Karine Sarkissian, Executive Director, AmCham in Armenia.

During the meeting it was agreed to form a working group with the participants of the meeting to continue the private and public sector dialogue and discuss the progress of the AmCham Sustainable Waste Management Project. It was proposed to include into the working group representatives from the RA Ministry of Finance and the RA Ministry of Economy, as well as from the Municipality, to effectively coordinate the work synergize on cross-cutting and avoid of overlapping activities.

Ms. Mary Harutyunyan, informed that there is a proposal on legislative changes and after the alignment within their department the materials will be shared for review and as need be exclude the legal part from the planned ToR and survey.

It was decided that the focal point and leading partner for the AmCham Sustainable Waste Management Project will the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of RA in close cooperation with the Ministry of Environment and other stakeholders.

During the meeting, it was stressed that the Kotayk Waste Management pilot project could be a good example to replicate. However, due to COVID-19 the implementation has been postponed. The new implementation schedule was developed and submitted to the Prime Minister’s office for approval.

Taking this opportunity we would like to thank Mr. Vache Terteryan, as well as the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of RA and the Ministry of the Environment for their time and active involvement and continuous support to the AmCham FMCG Committee Waste Management Project.

The AmCham FMCG Committee Waste Management Working Group’s objective is to raise awareness and encourage the Armenian business community to meet its environmental obligations, including the EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA)