On 03 March, 2020, the online working seminar summarizing results of the first phase of GCF (Green Climate Fund, the headquartered of which is in Incheon City, Republic of Korea) funded “Scaling up green finance practices in the Republic of Armenia” project were presented to and discussed with the program beneficiaries. Over 60 participants from program beneficiary institutions (representatives from Ministry of Environment, from Ministry of Economy, Central Bank of Armenia, International Financial Organizations, commercial banks and non-banking financial institutions) attended the seminar. During the second half of the 2020, the team comprised from international and local experts, as well as specialized consulting company has carried out comprehensive mapping of “green finance” practices by local financial institutions (17 banks and 16 universal credit organizations), identified key policy and capacity constraints of the latters and surveyed entrepreneurs and private households to identify and categorize their experience.

Ms. Hasmik Ghahramanyan, Board Member of the Central Bank of Armenia and Board Member of this programme after welcoming participants has briefly shared CBA’s vision about enabling framework for promotion of green finance practices in Armenia and underlined importance of ongoing Readiness & Preparatory Support project in advancing national capacities.

During his address to seminar attendees, Mr. Leo Park, Financial Institutions Manager of GCF, commended Armenia’s efforts aimed at more proactive participation within multilateral development frameworks and climate funds aimed at channeling “green finance”.

Mr. Andreas Biermann, international expert of the Project and Director for Sustainable Finance Business Development of UK based Globalfields consultancy, in summarizing the results of the first phase particularly underlined “Armenia needs to design rigorous policy and regulatory frameworks that are based on international best practices and provide necessary support to banks and private sector entities in attracting concessional funding from international markets”.

Participants of the seminar were also informed about planned next milestones of the Project and expressed interest in active participation in the activities.

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Within that overall strategy, the Government of Armenia through the Ministry of Environment (Designated National Authority) has requested support of Green Climate Fund (GCF) within the framework of “Readiness and Preparatory Support Programme” to implement comprehensive assessment of the constraints for further expansion of “green finance” practices, mapping of available instruments and to come up with comprehensive set of methodological, awareness raising and capacity building interventions.

The “ARMSWISSBANK” CJSC, one of the leading Armenian banks that has been awarded the contract for implementation of “Scaling up Green Finance Practices in the Republic of Armenia” Project, also seek accreditation with GCF (under direct access modality).

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