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The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved today a new, EUR 45.8 million (US $50 million) loan for the Armenia Governance Development Policy Operation (DPO), a budget support operation.

The operation supports the government’s actions to strengthen economic, fiscal, and public sector governance by: (i) improving pro-competition, pro-trade and streamlined quality regulations and processes (ii) enhancing efficiency of revenue mobilization and public investment; and (iii) strengthening anti-corruption initiatives and the performance of the justice sector and the civil service, World Bank Armenia Office reported.

“This operation prioritizes core governance reforms, initial steps which set the foundations for longer-term reforms in a number of areas,” says Sylvie Bossoutrot, World Bank Country Manager for Armenia. “It is anchored in the 2019–23 government program and the Bank’s Country Partnership Framework for 2019–23, which highlight governance as a cross-cutting foundation. It focuses on those areas where strategic relevance, impact, and reform sustainability are high and where it can support building blocks for deeper change.”

Market competition, for example, is targeted through interventions to introduce a state aid control framework, develop a more transparent and rule-based tax administration system, strengthen the quality and efficiency of laws and regulations, and institute efficient and risk-based custom management.

The EUR 45.8 million (about US $50 million) is an IBRD loan of fixed spread, with a 14.5-year grace period and a total repayment term of 25.5 years.

Since joining the World Bank in 1992 and IDA in 1993, commitments to Armenia have totaled approximately US $2,429,734 million.