On January 23, the event on GIZ “Economic Integration of Syrian Refugees in Armenia” project took place.

The event was aimed at following up achievements of the “Economic Integration of Syrian Refugees in Armenia” (EISRA) project in cooperation with its partners in the field and marking the handover of results to them to ensure sustainability.

During the event, the Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Investments of RA Tigran Khachatryan, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Republic of Germany to Armenia Matthias Kiesler, Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Diaspora of RA Firdus Zakaryan, Senior Programme Associate of UNHCR Armenia Nver Sargsyan and Head of Cooperation Section of EU Delegation to Armenia Hoa-Binh Adjemian delivered welcoming speeches.

Greeting the guests, the Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Investments of RA Tigran Khachatryan said in his welcoming speech, “On behalf of the Ministry of Economic Development and Investments of RA and on my behalf personally, I want to thank all the partners involved in the economic integration of Syrian Armenians. All these activities were of great importance. In this regard, I expect we will continue jointly with our partners our steps in this field. The Ministry is ready for active and effective cooperation”.

“People from Syria brought new ideas and different sense of entrepreneurship to this country. I am happy that the German Government contributed to the success stories of Syrian Armenians many of which you will hear today”, said the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Republic of Germany to Armenia Matthias Kiesler in his welcoming speech.

“GIZ EISRA project was a timely intervention to complement the humanitarian efforts of UNHCR and other partners to direct it towards development, self-sustainability and promoting economic integration”, mentioned Senior Programme Associate of UNHCR Armenia Nver Sargsyan in his speech.

After the official part of the evening, the guests watched a photo exhibition of Syrian Armenian businesspeople and were gifted the second, edited version of “RESTART: Syrian Armenians Planting Their Entrepreneurial Spirit in Armenia” book.

Notes to editors
The project “Economic Integration of Syrian Refugees in Armenia” (EISRA) is attached to the programme “Private Sector Development South Caucasus (PSD SC)” and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The project duration is 2015-2018 and it is aimed at improving preconditions for income generation for Syrian refugees in Armenia through coordination of dialogue among partners and facilitation of the target group’s access to existing business networks, employment and business support measures as well as promotion of their products and services during sector-specific local and international exhibitions.