Volume of e-trade in Armenia may grow up to USD 100mln annually after the reforms

Yerevan/Mediamax/. Adviser of the Armenian Minister of Economy Vahe Danielyan said today that the legislative problems concerning the development of e-trade in Armenia will be solved this year.

Vahe Danielyan, head of the interdepartmental group for considering e-commerce problems, said that the customs and tax problems require some legislative and administrative changes whereas payment and account problems including particularly the licensees for internet acquiring through VISA system (which is not available in any of the Armenian banks) should be solved with participation of the private sector, Mediamax reports.

“Central Bank reported us that 4 banks already hold negotiations on obtaining licenses for internet acquiring through VISA system and it’s quite encouraging”, said Vahe Danielyan adding that the expected improvement of joint processing of national ArCa payment and account system will enhance its security and reliability.

Executive Director of the Union of the IT Enterprises Karen Vardanyan noted that if now the annual volumes of e-trade in Armenia make USD 10mln, overcoming of infrastructure, legislative and administrative barriers will lead to the abrupt growth of the sphere and “in the initial phase, the volumes of e-trade will make about USD 100mln annually”.

Payment and account problem of e-trade

The Armenian banks don’t have licenses for internet acquiring of cardholders of VISA issued by foreign banks and the Armenian companies which sell items or services to foreign companies via internet have to open commercial accounts in the foreign banks and transfer them the payments for services/items. As a result, additional transaction expenses reduce the income of the Armenian companies by 3-5%.