Wednesday, April 8 2020 15:09

ArmInfo. To implement grant programs in 2020, the Ministry of High-Tech Industry of the Republic of Armenia provides for 930 million drams. On April 8, Minister of  High Technology Industry Hakob Arshakyan announced this at a press  conference in the Unified InfoCenter.

 In this regard, he emphasized that grant programs in the field of IT  will be continuous. <Under the current conditions, these programs are  an excellent opportunity, in particular, for those IT professionals  who provided services in the market of foreign countries, including  the United States and Canada, "Arshakayan said, stressing that the  latter will be able to invest in grants in product design and the  process their sales.  Thus, according to the minister, a number of  new companies producing IT products may appear in Armenia.  Arshakyan  said that this grant program is implemented in 4 lots - 2 mln drams,  3 mln. drams, 5 mln. drams and 10 million drams. It is noteworthy  that the participants independently chose from the lots presented the  amount of funds that is necessary to implement their decisions. In  total, 130 applications were received, of which, as the minister  noted, 37 were at the level of ideas, 59 at the development stage and  another 37 were already practical.

The main focus of the decisions concerned the control of the movement  of citizens in conditions of self- isolation, care and assistance to  older people and vulnerable segments of the population, offers for  trading platforms and online applications using artificial  intelligence and virtual reality.

At the same time, he said that in the coming days, as a result of the  assessment of the relevant Commission, the names of the winners will  be announced on the eve of the announced tender regarding mitigation  and elimination of the negative consequences of coronavirus.

At the same time, Arshakyan drew attention to the fact that  discussions are continuing with IT companies in order to identify  problems in the latter. He noted that the state should develop  support tools for IT, not only to mitigate the effects of the  epidemic, but also to ensure long-term development of the sector.

The head of the department also touched upon the program for  retraining Armenian startups in Silicon Valley. In this vein, he  noted that under the current conditions, training courses for the  first group of Armenian stratagers had to be postponed. However, it  is likely that retraining for the 1st group will take place together  with the 2nd summer of this year. <Of course, it is difficult to  predict how the situation with restrictions will develop in the  future, both from Armenia and the United States. But we really hope  and will do our best for the 2 groups to take retraining courses  together>, said Arshakyan.