RA Minister of Agriculture Ignati Arakelyan, Chief Executive Officer of "ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE BANK" CJSC Hakob Andreasyan and Acting Director of the “Rural Areas Economic Development Programmes Implementation Unit” (RAED PIU) State Agency of RA Government Staff Vahe Harutyunyan today signed a memorandum for cooperation in the program of providing subsidized loans to agricultural sector.

Within the framework of the program beneficiaries will be provided with 3-10 million dram loans with 5% annual interest rate, instead of the previous 8%, the interest rate for rural communities receiving social assistance and agricultural cooperatives will be 3%.

Minister of Agriculture of the RA Ignati Arakelyan stated that strict control over the program will be set so that the money will reach the actual recipients and serve the purpose. The minister emphasized that the funds will be provided to the beneficiaries in a phased manner, and according to the program there will be held monitoring and only then the next funding will be provided, and in case of detecting any abuse the subsidy will be halted.

The potential beneficiaries can be engaged in the program by participating in the mandatory training at the Agriculture Development Fund's regional bodies and receive a certificate which will allow them to apply to financial institutions.

RA Deputy Minister of Agriculture Robert Makaryan explains that the participation in the training is not yet a guarantee for the loan, it is also important for the economy to be creditworthy.

According to Robert Makaryan, the training will take 5 days, the process of registering participants in the regional bodies of the fund has already started, and currently, there are about 300 applicants.

The Deputy Minister said that he hoped soon other financial institutions will join the program as well.

ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE BANK Chief Executive Officer Hakob Andreasyan said that if the program previously had social orientation, now the resources would be directed towards more moderate, market-oriented medium-sized or large-scale economies, which use innovative technologies, more modern management techniques or have a real desire to invest that in their future businesses.

The bank's executive director added that after receiving the certificates, they are ready to accept loan applications from beneficiaries.