ARMENIA LAW AND PRACTICE Contributed by: Aram Orbelyan, Narine Beglaryan, Artur Hovhannisyan, Lilit Karapetyan, Sarkis Knyazyan and Shushanik Stepanyan, Concern Dialog
The Anti-Corruption Court has criminal and civil jurisdiction. The criminal jurisdiction covers criminal cases with corruption-related charges. Within the civil jurisdiction, the court deals with civil forfeiture cases and recovery of damages to state and other public entities caused by crimes. The courts of first instance of general jurisdiction have jurisdiction over all other cases which are not subject to other courts. 2. Restrictions on Foreign Investments 2.1 Approval of Foreign Investments The Law on Foreign Investments defines a for - eign investor as a foreign state, a foreign legal entity, a foreign citizen, a stateless person, a citi - zen of Armenia permanently residing outside of Armenia, or any international organisation that engages in investment in Armenia according to the legislation in force. Foreign investment is further defined as any property, including finan - cial resources and intellectual values, directly invested by a foreign investor as defined above in commercial or other activities in Armenia to gain profit, revenue or any other benefit. Based on the practice established by Armenian courts, only those assets which are invested in the company’s equity (via relevant corporate decisions) shall be considered as investments. As a general remark, Armenian law in this area does not determine requirements for pre-approv - al or approval of such foreign investment by any state body. Accordingly, besides the generally applicable processes for carrying out business in Armenia, the law does not determine any such pre-approval requirements.
That being said, in specific sectors, approval of the investment plan assures incentives and other benefits to the investor. For example, according to the Land Code of the Republic of Armenia (RA), property owned by the state or community can be donated for social or charitable purposes or for implementing invest - ment plans approved by the government of the RA. Such a decision of the government and the donation agreement indicate the sole purposes for which the donated land can be used. Furthermore, investors can be entitled to specif - ic tax or customs incentives in specific cases if the government approves the granting of incen - tives per a submitted investment plan under the particular decree of government specifying the incentives. For example, investors might apply for a five-year exemption from customs duties during the implementation of their investment plan. Furthermore, investments in public service sec - tors can be considered by the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) when determin - ing tariffs for public services. However, obtaining an operational permit in these sectors is not con - tingent on the submission of an investment plan. In general, the stated cases concern benefits to and incentives for the investor rather than a pre-approval process to protect the investment or for the investment to be qualified as a foreign investment. 2.2 Procedure and Sanctions in the Event of Non-Compliance As described in 2.1 Approval of Foreign Invest- ments , there is no mandatory regulation of pre- approval mechanisms for investment plans; ie, there is no requirement to invest with prior
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