Armenia is launching a charm offensive in the city to attract British investment.
The country’s economy minister and diplomats met this week with major banks in the city, which appears to be turning away from Russia.
Vahan Kerobyan, Armenia’s economy minister and former HSBC banker, has been commuting around the British capital in an effort to strengthen ties between the two countries.
Located in the Caucus region between Russia and the Middle East, Armenia is looking to strengthen its connections with Western financial centers and shift its geopolitical alignment after the war in Ukraine.
Although Britain is not a major trading partner, the value of goods and services exchanged between the countries has grown rapidly. Last year, trade between the two countries amounted to £92 million, up 156 percent year-on-year.
Charm offensive: Armenian economy minister and diplomats held meetings with major banks in the city as it looks to turn away from Russia
Kerobyan told the Mail that the government plans to increase this to around £1 billion within the next three years, ideally with the help of investment from Western banks.
The delegation has already met with HSBC, his former employer, and yesterday also arranged a meeting with US banking giant JP Morgan.
“We really need to diversify our economic ties,” he said.
No floats from Armenian companies are planned for the London market yet, but Kerobyan says this is a possibility for the future.
The government is keen to promote its technology sector, concentrated in the capital Yerevan. Its status as a technology center dates back to the Soviet Union, when it functioned as a research center as one of its constituent republics. It was previously called the ‘Silicon Valley of the Soviet Union’.
Armenia is now looking to regain that crown, with Kerobyan noting that multinational technology giants such as computer chip group Nvidia, IT giant Oracle and communications group Cisco all have a presence in the country.
The minister also pointed to Armenia’s vast copper reserves, which are crucial for electrification and renewable energy, and what he said was its “booming” solar industry.
Recent events in the region have also accelerated Armenia’s drive to boost its economy. The country is hosting about 100,000 refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-populated enclave that was captured by neighboring Azerbaijan last month.
But Kerobyan appeared outwardly unfazed by the flare-up in the region, saying the attack on Nagorno-Karabakh would pose no risks to Armenia’s fiscal stability.
He noted that the country’s credit rating was upgraded in August by S&P Global Rating, a leading US rating agency, following an influx of professionals from Russia. The expatriates have boosted the IT sector, which grew by 51 percent last year.