Government Body Offers Cheap Credit To Syrian Armenians

A government body tasked with supporting small business offered on Thursday to extend low-interest loans to ethnic Armenians from Syria who have taken refuge in Armenia and would like to start businesses there.

Senior officials from the National Center for the Development of Small and Medium Business made the offer at a meeting with a group of Syrian Armenians currently residing in Yerevan.

The center’s director, Varazdat Karapetian, said they could borrow, without collateral, up to 5 million drams ($12,350) each at a 5 percent interest rate set well below market-based levels. The agency’s lending rate for local entrepreneurs is 10 percent per annum, he said. Also, a single loan provided to locals does not exceed 3 million drams.

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