A two-day international conference on regulation in Yerevan.

The Armenian Ministry of Economy and Finland’s Institute of Public Administration (HAUS) have organized a two-day international conference in Yerevan on effective public administration, challenges and developments with the assistance from the European Union. 

"The first Twinning project in Armenia was about the introduction of a regulated administration system. This means that we are improving the current system, which allows us to assess its impact on businesses and activities of individual actors before we adopt a new legislation", first deputy economy minister Karine Minasyan said. She added that the conference will discuss what system is to be introduced in Armenia and how it should work.
According to her, the main feature of this new system is that all regulators will be asked to consider developing an alternative option before submitting their proposals to the government or parliament.

"In other words, the regulator should first of all think about whether this regulatory mechanism is needed, what risks it may hold back or what impact it will have on businesses in the context of their costs," she said.
Minasyan added that alternative solutions should also be presented for approval so that the government is to correctly orient itself regarding the adoption of a decision based on an economic basis.

"During this conference we will hold a final discussion on the concept and present it to the public, after which it will be submitted for approval to the government," she said.

Twinning is an institutional building tool which provides direct exchange of specific national experience in a specific field in EU legislation implementation between a Public Administration in a Beneficiary country and the equivalent institution in an EU Member State.  

The Twinning program gained new impetus when it was extended in 2009 to countries neighboring with the EU, including Armenia. The aim of Twinning is to upgrade /modernize the institutions of the beneficiary country at central, regional and local level, through training, reorganization as well as drafting of laws and regulations modeled after the EU acquis. The fundamental principle of the Twinning project is that it must yield mandatory results.

"This conference provides a good opportunity to us to get familiarized with the best international experience in administration systems and to discuss trends and evaluate the effectiveness of regulatory control", Minasyan said.