The RA Deputy Minister of Economy Arman Khojoyan met with the representatives of financial institutions to discuss the process of the state support program of leasing for financial lending of agricultural machinery and equipment for agricultural and food production industry.

Arman Khojoyan noted that farmers are exhibiting high interest towards leasing programs, which is evidenced by the annual increase in the number of program beneficiaries and acquired agricultural machinery and equipment for agricultural and food production industry.

Thus, according to the Deputy Minister, under the state program of leasing of agricultural and food production equipment, around 30 million AMD was leased in the first year of the program in 2018, in 2019 it increased to 2.7 billion AMD, and as of November 30, 2020, more than 5 billion AMD was approved for applications for leasing.

The Deputy Minister also noted that within the framework of the other component of the leasing program, which is the financial lending of agricultural machinery, about 882 million AMD was provided in 2018, in 2019 it increased to about 1.7 billion AMD, and for the period January-October 2020 the amount has already increased to about 2․4 billion AMD.

“Taking into account the proposals submitted by citizens, we aim to review and amend these programs, at the same time taking into account that any change must be acceptable to the financial institutions participating in the programs”, said Arman Khojoyan.

During the meeting, the issues raised by potential beneficiaries of leasing programs were discussed, proposals on improving the programs were presented.

Among the topics on the agenda for the discussion were the issues of increasing the threshold cost of some equipment subject to acquisition within the program framework, expansion of the list of equipment provided by the program, the possibility of extending the privileged terms set by the program until December 31, 2020, use of financial risks reduction mechanisms of the institutions participating in the programs and a number of other issues related to other provisions of the programs.

Arman Khojoyan assured the meeting participants that the Ministry of Economy is ready to discuss and study in detail each proposal, which will be aimed at successful implementation of these and other state support programs.