Two member events are merged under ABBC umbrella. Seda Ghazarian Memorial Foundation (SGMF) took advantage of well-known restaurant Top Table new premisses opening and organised a charity exhibition at the opening ceremony. The main mission of SGMF is to contribute in mental well-being development. They exposed a painter Sargis Zakaryan‘s artwork at the restaurant to contribute in providing free services of “Intra” mental health centre to socially vulnerable children. 12 pieces of paintings will be exhibited at Top Table restaurant for a month. The foundation is relying on your generosity to help the centre to provide free service to children in need. Have the piece of art in your personal corner!

Business Dinner or Dinner for Member Business?…
…gourment dinner in a famous garden in Nork Marash with Shakespeare’ Midsummer Night’s Dream décor and flowers provided by SarcoMeene was an unforgettable evening organised for ABBC Members and friends.  The event was accompanied with nice music of Oldies and of course free prize drawing, where the lucky winner of a special prize of two British Midland International  tickets was ABBC member “Hereward Resources” .  Generosity continued with prizes like dinner for four at Top Table restaurant, gift certificate of CitySpa from GlaxoSmithKline and of course bottles of whisky provided by Pernod Ricard.

Special thanks to all who made this unique event possible with an atmosphere “where the reality becomes a dream, and dreams become reality”.

After one year of operation ABBC Board reported progress of activities as well as budget to the members.  Chairman of the Board of Directors Alan Kutchukyan briefed the members about major events that have taken place since establishment.  The Chairman also proudly announced that due to  the hard work of the Board of Directors the Chamber was able to involve 36 members during one year.  ABBC provided appropriate assistance as required to many of the member businesses.  During the meeting ABBC 2010 - 2011 annual report with the financial statement was presented to the members, which was approved unanimously.

In compliance with ABBC Charter with the presence of apt quorum Election of the Board of Directors took place during the Annual General meeting.

Loud music of Scottish bagpipe was accompanied by “Bambir” group
rock sounds of a bass guitar at Folk Art Museum in Yerevan. Official ceremony of handing Scottish national food Haggis, which arrived all the way from Scotland on BMI airlines was handed to H.E. British Ambassador Mr. Londsdale. On 22nd January Huggis was cooked by butcher John Davidson and served at Marriot hotel to over 260 people from international community, Armenian and foreign business representatives who came to participate at annual most entertaining event of Yerevan, Robert Burns Supper.

The event has been held in Armenia for 13 years and gets more and more attention from year to year as a Scottish National performance with a rich program of bagpipe music, by Tommy Elders, Scottish dancing, traditional toasts, national kilts, auction and of course whiskey provided by Pernod Ricard. This year’s Burns Supper was also special with kids fashion show of Scottish National clothes designed by Nina Hovnnanian Couture Treasures.

Due to 4 major sponsors HSBC Bank Armenia, Pernod Ricard, Marriott Hotel and British Midland International, as well as all the other sponsors and participants financial assistance 27,500 USD was raised. The proceeds of the festivity are spent for 6 winning proposals, which were submitted to the British Embassy to Armenia and Armenian British Business Chamber before and after the event. The selection of beneficiaries was carried out “Burns Supper Committee”.

view the program here:

“British Ambassador, Charles Lonsdale, spoke about Armenia to the Central Asia and Trans Caucasus Business Interest Group (CATBIG) business to business forum organized by British Expertise London on 14 December, 2010. The Ambassador briefed a well attended meeting of interested businesses about the current economic and political situation in Armenia and the opportunities for business. ABBC members, Vardan Ouzunian (Tekeyan Center Fund) and Tim Papworth (Hereward Resources) was also able to attend and give a view on doing business in Yerevan.

The Ambassador told us “It was encouraging to see a good turn-out and to have plenty of questions about the economic and commercial possibilities. We took the opportunity to mention that ABBC was ready to assist UK companies looking at doing business in Armenia and I hope that we will see some increased interest from the UK as a result.”

American Chamber of Commerce has initiated and is currently carrying on “Armenian Business Climate” Survey among its member companies. Not once ABBC has been approached by member and non member companies with complaints about different business regulations. Due to the mentioned reason ABBC is also conducting the same survey. Results of the survey will be publicized and further steps will be initiated by both chambers to approach the Government of Armenia to lobby for businesses and to overcome mentioned issues.

Within the framework of his private trip to London ABBC Deputy Chairman Hayk Harutyunyan met following people for future cooperation and possible members interested to join the Chamber.

• Mr. Neville Reyner, the president of British Chambers of Commerce (BCC). Click here for the meeting details.
• Nigel Peters, Director of the British Expertise.Click here for the meeting details.
• Dr. Hratch Chilingaryan, Director of Eurasia House Foundation. Click here for the meeting details.
• Vartan Ouzounian, Chairman of the TECHNOCHEM International LLC and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Tekeyan Centre Fund. Click here for the meeting details.
• as well as Armenian Embassy in UK. Click here for the meeting details.

ABBC Board Member Mamikon Bostanjyan was in London the week commencing 12 July for business trip, where he also had couple of meetings regarding development of ABBC.

He met Dennis Summit, Executive Director of Links UK NGO www.links-london.org. LINKS is a British non governmental organisation working for the peaceful resolution of conflicts and in support of democracy and sustainable development in societies in transition, through dialogue and innovative initiatives. LINKS supports the idea of an expanded and inclusive European Union, and engages with countries with aspiration for membership. LINKS promotes dialogue between Europe and the Islamic world based on mutual respect.

He also met Vitali Nikolian, Director and owner of La Brea Investment consultants and Senior Managers from BG Group www.bg-group.com.

Read more: ABBC Board Members in London

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Armenia and Armenian British Business Chamber have signed an agreement on the future cooperation of both Chambers.

The main concept of the agreement is to establish ties between two Chambers to employ the general concept of Economic Development of Armenia. It is an essential undertaking for ABBC to cooperate with ArmCCI and its member companies as well as other regional Chambers under ArmCCI umbrella. The following main points have been agreed upon by signing the agreement;

• To exchange information about economic development and legal field of Armenia and UK
• Organise official meetings for important issues such as investment opportunities between
• two countries and exchange of ideas and project development
• To facilitate and lead meetings and conferences for business delegations from Britain and
• Armenia
• Invest joint efforts in lobbying for member businesses in the Government of Armenia
• Mutual assistance and consultancy about issues related to trade and other areas.

The agreement was signed by the President of ArmCCI Mr. Martin Sargsyan and Chairman of Board of Directors of ABBC Mr. Alan Kutchukian.

To view press release and press coverage click here.

With the presence of about 40 guests from the Business Community, Diplomatic Corps
and Officials from GoA, ABBC Deputy Chairman, Hayk Harutyunyan and Founding Members launched the Chamber and announced it open opportunity to new members to join the initiative in order to represent interests of its members in both Armenian and British governmental structures. The opening event was a chance to bring all the founding members together under one umbrella and introduce the Chamber to the business community and partners.

UK Ambassador to Armenia Charles Lonsdale mentioned that “ABBC will allow its participants to learn more about Armenia and will provide needed information and support”.

First Annual General Meeting was held with founding members. The main issues on the agenda were to form the Board of Directors and Committees as required according to the ABBC Charter. Board of Directors formed of 7 members was elected. Two Committees – Membership Committee and Services Committee were formed at the meeting.