This policy brief outlines the current status of BOT reform in Armenia, highlights key achievements and gaps, and provides recommendations for international and in-country actors.
Armenia became one of the pioneer countries in the world to successfully ensure beneficial ownership transparency (BOT) of all business sectors. As an Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) member, Armenia has committed to beneficial ownership transparency for the extractives sector in 2017. Following this, in 2018 the Government of Armenia (GOAM) has initiated an economy-wide holistic reform on BOT as a part of the government’s efforts to combat corruption and meet international commitments. The GOAM has included a commitment in the Open Government Partnership 4th National Action Plan 2018-2020 to ensure beneficial ownership transparency of all business sectors. In 2019 Armenia has made a strong commitment to BOT as part of the Beneficial Ownership Leadership Group. In 2020 the GOAM launched the Multi-Sector Register (MSR), a comprehensive open and freely accessible public register of beneficial owners. Later in 2021 the MSR started capturing and publishing data in line with Beneficial Ownership Data Standard making Armenia one of the two countries in the world together with Latvia which publishes BO data in the innovative standard.
The preliminary phase of the comprehensive reform covered the extractives sector. In the second phase, starting from September 1st, 2021 public service regulatory organizations and audio-visual media service providers also started to submit mandatory BO declarations. In the final third phase, since January 1st, 2023 the reform has been extended to all sectors of business. According to the State Register of the Legal Entities (SRLE), as of December 1st, 2024, the Multi-Sector Register includes 111,727 BO declarations submitted by companies across all sectors (commercials and non-commercials).
