YEREVAN, March 11. /ARKA/. Shady dealings hobble development of Armenia’s economy, Valeriu Razlog, head of the EBRD Yerevan Office, said Friday during a round-table discussion.

He said that the EBRD and World Bank’s joint studies proved this. Some 350 entrepreneurs were surveyed in 2009 and 2010.

Razlog said that respondents had pointed out shadow economy, political instability, tax-related and legislative problems and complicated customs management as major obstacles for improvement of business environment.

He stressed that high logistic fees and adverse geographic location hobble export – industrial capacity can satisfy only domestic demand leaving no room for export.

Armenia downgraded its position by four notches in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2010 ranking. The country came 48th among 183 countries slipping from 44th rank in 2009.

The government has said Armenia will reach considerable progress in improvement of its business environment by April 2011. –0--