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Attempting to become a major diamond industry center The diamond industry in Armenia’s Kotayk Province is experiencing noticeable progress and the number of business operators in the sector is expected to grow soon. Kotayk Governor Romanos Petrosyan told that the city of Abovyan currently has a diamond manufacturing company with 80-100 employees. “There are businessmen who intend to attract major investments by working in Abovyan, associated with the post-revolutionary political situation. Concrete steps are already being made in this direction. Large scale construction has recently commenced in Abovyan, in the territory of the former Sirus factory. The diamond industry plants will be located here. It is planned that Hong Kong and Dubai based diamond manufacturers will open offices in Abovyan and will start production,” the governor said, adding that according to the business plan 3000 jobs will be created in the coming years. He said the companies are also pla

The Minister of Economic Development and Investments of RA Tigran Khachatryan informed that Armenian government has decided to consistently increase the tax on imported gold and diamonds from the non-EAEU countries. This year, the tax on imports of gold and diamonds will increase by 3%. " a 3% duty will be applied to imports of diamond and gold products. In 2020, the duty will reach 6%, and in 2021 it will go up 10% for gold and 9% for diamonds, in 2022 it will rise by 15%," says Khachatryan. Armenia increases tax on imports of gold and diamonds from non-EAEU countries, according to the Minister, an income tax increase will strengthen the position of local business.

Exports 230% higher YoY Armenia exported 643.6 thousand carats of diamonds in 2018, which is 2.3 times higher than a year ago. The customs value was $ 77.2 million, with an annual decline of 19.7%. According to the RA Customs Service, diamonds from Armenia are mainly exported to the USA (57.8%), UAE (24.8%) and Russia (10.9%) as well as to Belgium (3.7%) and Canada (1.2%). According to customs data, a positive trend was recorded and imports of products of the cutting industry, in particular, in quantitative terms, supply volumes increased by 18.2%. Thus, during the reporting year, 610.8 thousand carats of rough diamonds were imported into the republic, worth $ 172.3 million (with an annual growth of 14.2%). Primarily, rough diamonds are imported to Armenia from the United Arab Emirates (52.6%) and India (13.7%), as well as from Switzerland (7.8%), the Russian Federation (6.4%) and Belgium (5.9%), Canada (5.2%); United Kingdom (4.2%); Israel (1.5%).

According to the AJA, export issues of the jewelry industry and the related problems of VAT was the subject of discussions in December between representatives of the jewelry industry and acting Minister of Economic Development and Investments of Armenia Tigran Khachatryan. According to the press service of the department, the participants of the meeting raised the issue of the need for state assistance in importing rough diamonds from the Russian Federation and developing joint mechanisms in this area. During the meeting, the format of state assistance on the participation of Armenian companies in international exhibitions in order to enter new foreign markets was also discussed.