Workshop entitled “Current challenges to improvement of the business environment under judicial and legal reforms”

From 11 to 12 December, the “Centre for Legislation Development and Legal Research” Foundation of the Ministry of Justice organised a two-day workshop entitled “Current challenges to improvement of the business environment under judicial and legal reforms”. Among the participants of the workshop were representatives of public and private sectors, particularly Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan, Deputies of the National Assembly Suren Grigoryan and Yeghishe Soghomonyan, representatives of the Ministries of Finance, Economy and High-Tech Industry, the Central Bank, the State Revenue Committee, the Union of Banks, commercial banks, consulting firms, non-governmental organisations, as well as field experts and academic lawyers.

During the workshop, Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan delivered an opening speech, stating that the key objectives on the agenda that have been discussed and implemented so far under judicial and legal reforms have covered topics related to the public sector; therefore, in this context, importance is attached to the discussion on issues for improvement of the private sector and the business environment, which are included in the agenda for the workshop.

Director of the ”Centre for Legislation Development and Legal Research” Foundation T. Dadunts presented the scope of topics to be discussed during the workshop, including reforms in the corporate and arbitration sectors, improvement in the field of electronic contracts and clarification of the legal status of cryptocurrencies.

Within the scope of the changes envisaged in the corporate sector, a number of issues for making employees shareholders, share consolidation, revision of the mechanisms for classification of shares, introduction of regulations regarding the requirement of mandatory purchase and sale of shares, effective separation of powers of corporate governance bodies and modernisation of the legislation on shareholder companies were discussed.

Within the scope of reforms in the arbitration sector, the main directions for revision of the legislation in the sector, as well as the activities being carried out to create a new arbitration centre were discussed. The summarised agenda for the creation of the new arbitration centre was presented, including, inter alia, its organisational and legal form, financing, structure, arbitration rules, ways of engaging arbitrator (including international arbitrator), payments and other guarantees.

Issues on the modernisation of legal regulations for electronic contracts, the clarification of the legal status of cryptocurrencies and the need for regulations were also touched upon.

The guests and speakers of the workshop discussed and debated over the issues on the agenda, and the comments and suggestions made during the discussions and debates will serve as a basis for the implementation of reforms and revision of the considered documents before they are placed into circulation in the prescribed manner.