Supported by the EU-SMEDA project, four Armenian Precision Engineering and IIoT (industrial internet of things) companies recently had the opportunity to be part of this year's Hannover Messe 2018, the world’s biggest trade fair for engineering.

Prior to the trade fair, several sessions for capacity development and preparation had been conducted by EU-SMEDA. Additionally, a road show was organised to a number of outstanding German entities specialised in engineering, such as the Association of German Engineers VDMA (with over 3,200 member companies in the SME-dominated mechanical and systems engineering industry in Germany and Europe), Berlin Adlershof – one of the leading Science and Technology parks in Europe – and the famous Autostadt Volkswagen in Wolfsburg.

The four Armenian companies were RAFA Solutions (rafasolutions.com), Bitlis-MEN (www.bitlismen.com), Volterman Inc. (www.volterman.com) and Grovf (www.grovf.com); they were accompanied by representatives of the three Free Economic Zones in Armenia, namely Alliance FEZ (www.fez.am), Meridian FEZ (www.meridianfez.com) and Meghri FEZ (www.meghrifez.am), as well as the Gyumri Technology Centre (www.gtc.am) and Vanadzor Technology Centre (www.vtc.am), the Union of Precision Engineering Enterprises (www.upee.am) and the Ministry of Economic Development and Investments of Armenia

At the Hannover fair, the Armenia delegation presented the business opportunities in Armenia under the slogan “Armenia – Explore New Opportunities!”

A forum on ‘Business Opportunities in Armenia’ was also held, followed by a networking event. During the forum a panel discussion was held with precision engineering companies, Technoparks and FEZ executives who presented investment and business opportunities, development trends and capacities of their entities to interested international investors and business partners. The various exhibiting companies and entities were able to raise a high interest among potential business partners and investors with whom they discussed cooperation perspectives for the future.

“Armenia provides some real new opportunities at the bridge between the Eurasian Economic Union, Iran, and the European Union. It offers not only highly skilled labour, but showcases also some surprising and highly innovative ideas, that can drive Industry 4.0, Precision Engineering and future development in general,” concluded Eva Naeher, Team Leader of the EU-SMEDA project about the forum and Armenia’s first participation at Hannover Messe.

More about the programme here.
More about the Armenian Delegation here.
More about the Armenian Delegation in the video.
Full video about the Armenian Delegation here.

The EU4Business SMEDA (Support to SME Development in Armenia) project supports the improvement of the business and investment climate for SMEs in Armenia. It aims to strengthen the private sector, support SME coordination mechanisms, and foster links between research institutions and the private sector, as well as providing access to finance for SMEs.