The SME definition in place in Armenia since 2011 is in line with the EU definition, as it is based on three criteria covering employment, turnover and balance sheet.

According to the 2018 data, SMEs comprise more than 99.8% of all enterprises in the business economy, with microenterprises constituting 93.6% of them. SMEs account for 68% of total business employment and generate up to 60% of value added in the business sector, which is broadly comparable with the SME performance in the EU.

Most SMEs in Armenia are concentrated in relatively low value added activities, such as wholesale and retail trade (64%) and manufacturing (10%).

Armenia has conducted a proactive SME policy since the early 2000s and over the years it has established a relatively advanced institutional policy framework, in spite of the lack of a clearly defined SME development strategy. The mandate to design and co-ordinate SME policy has been assigned to the Ministry of Economy. The SME Development National Centre (SME DNC), established in 2002, is in charge of policy implementation, offering a wide range of support programmes through its headquarters in Yerevan and its network of ten regional offices.

Compared with the 2016 assessment, Armenia’s overall score in this dimension has moderately decreased. While incremental progress has been observed in a number of areas (especially in company registration), government action has recently lost momentum in the area of e-government services and no progress has been made with respect to open data. The introduction of two new sub-dimensions, tax administration and business licencing, is also capturing policy aspects of relative under-performance.

Armenia adopted a Strategic Programme for Digital Governance in 2014 and since then has been expanding the range of e-government services and their accessibility. The range of services currently available for all enterprises registered in Armenia is quite comprehensive and includes online filing of tax returns and social security contributions, an e-pension platform, e-cadastre services, e-procurement services, and e-company registration. Access is granted through a bi-lingual portal (www.egov.am) that re-directs users to the relevant website. The “Armenia Digital Agenda – 2030”, an updated e-government strategy covering all areas of public administration, was drafted in 2017, but its adoption and implementation is currently on hold, pending a review by the new government established after the 2018 general elections, while the Armenia Digital Foundation, previously in charge of the strategy co-ordination, has been dissolved.

Source: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/95f303db-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/95f303db-en