ArmInfo. Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan held a consultative meeting on the prospects of development of information and telecommunication technologies. The meeting was attended by ministers and representatives of IT companies, the press office of the Armenian Government reports.
"Convinced that the IT sector is a major driving force behind the economy, I am prepared to discuss with you any relevant issue, including the educational system, higher education, training of specialists, management mechanisms and so on," the Premier said as he opened the consultation and went on to emphasize that he was looking forward to getting the guests' understanding and proposals regarding the steps aimed at developing the IT industry in Armenia.
The Head of Government was introduced to a number of ideas and projects. In particular, the meeting discussed the possibility of creating an engineering town and a center of excellence in the field of cyber security, providing increased funding for technology entrepreneurship and implementing ICT educational programs at schools and higher education institutions. During the exchange of views that followed, the speakers discussed prospects for qualitative changes in the education system, market demand for IT professionals, education-business-science model and other issues.
The Prime Minister asked about the results of joint programs implemented with the government, noted the importance of continuity and highlighted the implementation of breakthrough measures of strategic importance: "I need a program to turn the world upside-down. What changes should we make so that your industry, your business and the market could develop in addition to specific programs? What is preventing you? I need to realize your policies in terms of both specialist training and increased productivity in the GDP."
Karen Karapetyan advised that the Government is going to establish an investment fund, which will provide a mechanism to assist businesses, including the field of information and telecommunication technologies.
"Let us understand your expectations and commitments. The most difficult task today is to allocate money from the budget, which suffers from a serious deficit. But we can take a share in other forms, including the property and other assets we have. If you set up a task force that to examine and make recommendations regarding your plans, we can move forward in this direction," the Head of Government noted.
The Prime Minister instructed the Minister of Transport, Communication and Information Technologies to work with IT sphere representatives in order to generate clear synergies and develop targeted measures to offer specific proposals with practical results.
To note, in 2015 there were nearly 500 IT companies in Armenia. The sector demonstrates 20-25% annual growth. The share of the IT sector in GDP of Armenia is 3.8%. It is envisaged to ensure 1bln USD turnover in the sector by 2018.
