Potential of growth of IT sector in Armenia is 40-50% yearly

ArmInfo. Armenia's IT sector  can annually provide 45-50% growth. The executive director of the  Union of IT Enterprises (UITE) of Armenia Karen Vardanyan in an  interview shared this assessment with the ArmInfo correspondent. He  noted that in recent years, on average, the IT sector of Armenia  provides 20-25% of annual growth, with a turnover of $ 500 million.

In particular, the expert noted that today IT enterprises operate in  Armenia, which annually record high growth rates. In his opinion, in  the case of conducting an effective policy and correct positioning  "in one key direction" on the international market, for 3 years the  number of IT enterprises in Armenia can grow 5 times.

According to him, the sphere in the five-year period can reach 50%  growth if problems in the tax sphere, education, representation of  Armenia in the international arena as a country with high IT  potential, in the issue of attracting foreign specialists to Armenian  enterprises and others. At the same time, Varadanyan attached special  importance to providing the industry with government orders, which,  as a rule, are performed by international IT organizations, and not  by domestic ones. As an example, the expert cited state orders within  the military-industrial complex, which Armenian specialists serve  only 5% of the total.  "It turns out that the work that Armenian  enterprises can perform is performed by foreign contractors," he  said.

As for positive changes in the tax part for IT, Vardanyan noted the  establishment of a shorter VAT refund period for exporting legal  entities and the elimination of the application of VAT on the border  for machinery and raw materials imported by VAT payers in Armenia,  which was recently adopted by the government. "This is the issue for  which we unsuccessfully struggled from 2007-2008. And today I  interpret the changes as a special signal from the Government, which  indicates that we are moving in the direction of improving those  points that have senselessly limited the revival of our economy," he  stressed. 

To note, according to the estimates of the Ministry of Economic  Development and Investments, the IT sector of the economy provided  about 6% of Armenia's GDP in 2016.