Armenia Establishes Equal Conditions for Local and Foreign Investors

YEREVAN, April 16. /ARКА/. The National Assembly of Armenia adopted the bill On Investments in its first reading at its session on Thursday.

The document aims to create a legal framework that meets modern investment requirements. Its regulation will apply to both local and foreign investors, as well as investments.

The law establishes the legal framework for investment in Armenia, guarantees and freedoms applicable to investors and their investments, investor rights and protection mechanisms, investor obligations, the legal framework for investment incentives, the principles of their provision and administration, and the institutional framework for investment policy.

The document provides for a non-discrimination guarantee consisting of two components. The first is national treatment, according to which foreign investors have equal rights, freedoms, and obligations with local investors. The second is most-favored-nation treatment, which implies that all foreign investors in similar circumstances have equal rights.

In other words, a foreign investor in Armenia is entitled to treatment no less favorable than that accorded to any other foreign investor. Exceptions are provided for in certain international treaties.

The law also enshrines guarantees for the protection of investments and investors, as well as the transparency and stability of the legal framework. Specifically, it defines guarantees for the free movement and conversion of capital and property, ownership and other property rights to land, the employment of workers, dispute resolution mechanisms, and access to justice.

According to the draft, investments covered by the guarantees provided by law will retain this protection for five years after any changes to the scope of such guarantees or their cancellation.-0-