Legal Committee Meeting

On 13 July 2021 AmCham held its Legal Committee Meeting at Holiday Inn Express.
During the Committee Meeting it was discussed:
1. AmCham Legal Committee Survey RESULTS review and 3 key focus area objective setting – input from the members
It was proposed to have a Legal Committee meeting with the Minister of Economy Mr. Vahan Kerobyan and present the priority areas and after that identify the key 3 key points to focus partnering with the Ministry in 2021 on the following priorities:
• Tax law changes – business climate supportive changes
• Investment strategy and policy
• EAEU regulations updates – involvement of ministry of the economy on EAEU level, protection of interests of the sectors
• PPP principles
• Labor Code related issues and International hiring practices
2. Holiday Schedule Legislation Change Recommendation
As the Ministry of Economy came up with the Legislation change proposal on the Reduction of the number of non-working days during the New Year/Christmas period from 7 to 2.
AmCham has conducted a survey to understand what the business community thinks. After finalizing the results, 80% of AmCham Member Companies are against the reduction of holidays. AmCham Legal Committee Chair Ms. Lusine Mnatsakanyan has conducted research between different countries to understand what is the situation abroad. Russia has a similar non-working days’ scheme and in Europe the state gives more social guarantees, religious holidays, shifts the working days when it matches the weekends. In general, as need be the companies use the workforce and there is no need to make any changes to the current scheme.
3. GDPR and cybersecurity issue
Some ICT companies might consider closing their offices in Yerevan due to the strict GDPR regulations within the EU, specifically in Germany, and they might be closing their offices if the servers are outside of the EU. A meeting should be organized with the Personal Data Protection Agency head to understand the risks.
4. GPartners’s initiative – to support the Government of Armenia in designing an investment promotion and protection policy (including a new Investment Protection, etc.)
It was agreed that the Committee will revert to the GPartners’ initiative – to support the Government of Armenia in designing an investment promotion and protection policy (including a new Investment Protection, etc.) after meeting with the Minister of Economy to understand the real need.
5. Other
A meeting should be organized with the Ministry of Finance, to understand the Public Procurement process facilitation opportunity:
• Guarantees
• On-line application
• Mechanics for fraud prevention
• Contract draft review opportunity
Need – simple process introduction, and flexible policy in place.
6. Next-step
 Organize a meeting with the Minister of Economy to discuss and identify the key focus areas for 2021 and formulate the Committee Mission and Objectives, including the e-draft, Public procurement, Tax law changes – business climate supportive changes, as well as:
i. New Investment strategy and policy introduction
ii. EAEU regulations updates – involvement of Ministry of Economy on EAEU level, protection of interests of the sectors
iii. PPP principles
iv. Labor Code related issues and International hiring practices
 Follow- up with BSO on the leads on the draft law on “Making Amendments and Addenda to the Tax Code of the Republic of Armenia”
 Meeting with the Personal Data Protection Agency Head
 An Investment Promotion and Protection policy planning – lead GPartners to be followed-up after the meeting with the Minister of Economy

See event on Facebook here.