On the initiative of the Deputy Minister Varos Simonyan, a meeting was held at the RA Ministry of Economy with representatives of companies producing and supplying some products to large commercial networks to discuss a number of issues and jointly outline possible solutions thereof.

The meeting was also attended by the Deputy Chairman of the RA State Revenue Committee Arthur Manukyan, the Head of the Business Support Office (BSO) Gevorg Poghosyan, and responsible officers of the State Commission for the Protection of Economic Competition (SCPEC), the RA Ministry of Finance, the RA Ministry of Economy, and the Business Support Office.

In his speech, Varos Simonyan stressed that the Ministry is open for healthy discussions and suggestions.

During the meeting, in particular, issues related to business relations of suppliers and large commercial networks were discussed, such as difficulties of entering a commercial network, sales of local production, payment terms, as well as problems related to conclusion of contracts by large commercial networks with suppliers operating in alternative taxation systems.

Representatives of agricultural production companies, in their turn, expressed concern over the fact of unequal competitive conditions in some cases in the local market.

The meeting participants were also informed that the SCPEC developed an advisory guide for regulation of conscientious relations between commercial networks and supplying companies, which defines cooperation procedures.

At the end of the discussion it was mentioned that all the issues and suggestions raised will be thoroughly studied by the Business Support Office and based on international experience the specialists of the BSO and the RA Ministry of Economy will try to jointly present the complete chain of solutions.

It should be reminded that on February 19, 2021, during the session of the SME Development Council chaired by the RA Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan, issues related to large commercial networks, including supplying companies, sales of local production and other problems faced by SMEs were touched upon.