Precious stones, precious metals: Armenian diamond, aluminum and zinc. These goods, and others, brought Belgian businessmen to Armenia. A group of Belgian businessmen are currently in Armenia to hold various meetings and discussions with Armenian governmental and business bodies in order to explore understand the opportunities for business collaboration. According to Armine Hareyan, vice-president of the Committee of Armenians of Belgium, there is great potential for cooperation in the field of services, mainly information technologies, where Armenia already has a great reputation.
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Belgium to Armenia Eric de Muynk considers it too early to talk about joint Armenian-Belgian economic programs.
These days he also participates in meetings in various formats for Belgian businessmen who have arrived in Armenia and organizes dinners for Armenian and Belgian businessmen. We will certainly learn of the results of this work in the near future in the form of concrete programs.
“We have established an embassy in Armenia to help your country. Support is planned in several directions. The first path we would like Armenia to take is the path of peace, then democracy. We have noted that very brave reforms are taking place to reinforce democracy, we would like to support those efforts as well. Since my arrival, I have had many meetings with the minister responsible for economic development and with the minister of education, culture, sport and science. Meetings are also planned with other members of the government. Each of these meetings creates an opportunity to generate new ideas in support of Armenia,” the ambassador said in a conversation with Aravot.am.
One Belgian hydrometallurgical company, represented by Laurent Dubois, deals with the processing of complex metallurgical waste. The company has studied the environment of Armenia and they know that the soil of our country is rich in minerals: gold, copper, molybdenum and so on. They want to offer recycling services to Armenian mining companies to provide additional added value.
In this Belgian company, recycling is carried out hydrologically, using a method that uses water to filtering mining waste. So far, they are familiar with the opportunities provided by the Armenian market. Opportunities for cooperation will be clarified through further analysis.
Valery Safaryan, the president of the Armenian-Belgian Chamber of Commerce, says that for 18 years, they have been connecting Armenian and Belgian enterprises.
“When we started, 18 years ago, our commitment was to represent Armenia through an enormous marketing effort. Many Belgians did not know where Armenia is on the map. As today, we can be say that Armenia is a commercial and industrial bottleneck, which can serve as an entrance for Belgian businesses into other markets as well as into the Armenian market itself,” he said, adding that recent geopolitical developments reinforced Belgium’s determination to establish a presence in Armenia and to become a reliable partner for Armenia.
When we wondered whether Armenia is a risk zone for investments due to geopolitical developments, the Valery Safarian answered: “naturally, there is a risk factor and it is constantly being studied, but I will answer your question this way: Switzerland is currently considered a very safe and low-risk country, but we can never predict which part of the world and what developments may occur tomorrow”.
Our interlocutor also adds that the Kingdom of Belgium has adopted a position to cooperate with Armenia, an embassy has already been established, which also means strong economic ties. He explains that Belgium has a strong reputation in the sectors of pharmaceuticals and food, which can be the basis of mutual interests.
Valery Safaryan, also sees a great potential for cooperation in the field of nanotechnology, which is quite developed in Armenia.
On a related subject, the Belgian Armenian community celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.
Armine Hareyan, vice-president of the Committee of Armenians in Belgium, clarifies that the Armenian community in Belgium is much older, but the community structures are founded 100 years ago.
“The Belgian Armenian community is very active, apart from issues of Armenian identity preservation, lobbying programs are also being implemented to support Armenia”.
Since 2020, there have been demonstrations and protest actions in various formats for the protection of the rights of Artsakh and the Artsakh Armenians, several resolutions have been adopted in the Belgian parliament, unanimously condemning the Azerbaijani attacks, demanding the release of prisoners of war and other detained persons, about the preservation of cultural heritage in the occupied territories of Artsakh, etc. But the Belgian government has yet to follow-up on these resolutions and has other interests, so that the Belgian Armenian lobbying organizations will continue to work intensively in that direction.
Nelly GRIGORYAN
