Karen Karapetyan: IT sphere of Armenia has serious competitive advantages both in the region and abroad

ArmInfo. Prime Minister of  Armenia Karen Karapetyan urged local IT companies to be more active  and courageous, while stressing the readiness of the Armenian  government to make logical decisions and implement reforms. The head  of government announced this on September 27 at the opening of the  10th global forum ArmTech 2017, timed to cyber security.

Over the past years, Armenia registered a significant advance in the  sphere of high technologies and IT, the prime minister noted. In his  opinion, the sphere has all the prerequisites and potential for  Armenia to become a technological center in the region. He noted that  from 2008 to 2016, the sphere provided an average growth of 20-22%,  thanks to the policy implemented by the government. "However, in my  opinion, the growth rate of the IT sphere should be much higher," the  prime minister said. At the same time, he noted that due to tax  benefits for the IT sector, about 100 IT companies are opening in  Armenia every year.  In this regard, he stressed that the potential  is much higher. The prime minister attached particular importance to  the training of qualified and retraining IT staff.

In particular, K. Karapetyan noted that today Armenia cooperates with  a number of transnational companies, including Synopsys, Mentor  Graphics, National Instruments, Microsoft, D-LINK, ORAKLE, SISKO,  etc. In this vein, he stressed: "In order to accelerate development  of information technologies, we will continue to implement our  policy, deepening and expanding cooperation with local, transnational  and international companies, which will stimulate the increase of  competitiveness and ensure sustainable growth of the sphere."

At the same time K. Karapetyan stated that following the example of  IT, the government intends to take steps in the direction of  promoting engineering, clean technologies and other technological  areas.

Speaking about today's forum, the head of government noted that  ArmTech is a significant platform for demonstrating the achievements  in the IT industry, identifying new investment and business  opportunities, and helping to stimulate cooperation and exchange of  experience.

It should be noted that ArmTech 2017 is aimed at supporting the  high-tech industry of Armenia through the development of  international business ties and increasing investments. The main  topics of discussion are problems and strategies of cyber security,  cyber threats and opportunities for protection in the private and  public sectors, the Internet, artificial intelligence, automation,  etc. It is expected that ArmTech 2017 will attract more than 200  participants. The organizers of the forum are the RA Ministry of  Transport, Communication and Information Technologies and the  Enterprise Incubator Foundation.