Armenia's accession to the Agreement will take effect thirty days after the deposit of its instrument of accession with the Director-General, and following adoption of the draft law.

The decision today completes a process of negotiations that began with Armenia's application for accession to the Agreement just over a year ago, on 4 September 2009.

Director-General Pascal Lamy welcomed the decision as “good for Armenia, good for the Agreement on Government Procurement and good for the WTO system.” He said that “Participation in the GPA brings real benefits not only in terms of access to other Parties' markets for procurement of goods, services and construction services, but also in the form of enhanced competition and transparency in the Party's internal markets. It embodies a political and legal commitment to good governance principles that reflects very positively on the acceding government and on its leaders.” “In applying for GPA accession and then completing the related negotiations in a little over a year, Armenia has effectively demonstrated to the world its commitment to these principles” Mr. Lamy said.

The Chairman of the Committee on Government Procurement, Mr. Nicholas Niggli of Switzerland, congratulated Armenia and said that in applying for GPA accession and in completing the process in such a timely fashion, it had shown courage, fortitude and wisdom. “You have made a commitment to good governance that will be noted around the world, and that has made you a leader in your region” he added.

Government procurement accounts for in the range of 15-20 % of gross domestic product (GDP), on average, in developed countries. Only a part of this is currently covered by the Agreement on Government Procurement.

The aim of the Agreement is to open up as much of government procurement as possible to international competition. It is designed to make laws, regulations, procedures and practices regarding government procurement that is covered by the Agreement more transparent and to ensure they do not discriminate against the products or suppliers of other GPA Parties.

Currently, the Agreement covers forty-one WTO Members, namely: Canada; the European Union, with its 27 member States; Hong Kong, China; Iceland; Israel; Japan; Korea; Liechtenstein; the Kingdom of the Netherlands with respect to Aruba; Norway; Singapore; Switzerland; Chinese Taipei and the United States.

Other WTO Members that are in the process of negotiating their accession to the Agreement on Government Procurement are Albania, China, Georgia, Jordan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Oman and Panama. A further five WTO Members, namely Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Mongolia, Saudi Arabia and the Ukraine, have provisions regarding accession to the Agreement in their respective Protocols of Accession to the WTO.