Monday, December 12 2016 20:42

ArmInfo. Enterprise Incubator foundation (EIF) has become a model of IT industry development not only in Armenia but in other countries as well.  This model proved to be self-sustained. Moreover, the Foundation covers 65% of its expenses via non-state funds, Director of EIF Bagrat Yengibaryan stated at the press conference on December 12 attached to the recent trends of IT field development and results of 2016.

"Such figures are considered a great achievement not only in developing but also in developed countries", he stressed.

During the press conference the EIF's activities were presented since the day of its establishment (2002) and its influence on technological field in particular and Armenia's economy in overall. According to Yengibaryan the number of IT companies has reached 540 in 2016 involving 16 000 specialists in the sector. Turnover in Armenia's IT sector made over USD 500 million in 2016, and the sector's share in GDP totaled 6%. Touching upon the Foundation's activities Bagrat Yengibaryan stressed that EIF was the first to implement wide-scale education projects both short-term ones (such as lectures) and long-term (within cooperation with HEIs). More than 50% of specialists of the field are trained with EIF's support and the number of beneficiaries of the educational programs exceeds 20 thousand people. 500 teams and companies have participated in the incubation and acceleration programs of the Foundation. More than 70% of the field representatives cooperate with the Foundation in various formats, in one year only the number of companies-beneficiaries exceeded 200. As of today the Foundation develops projects in the field of engineering as well.

The Foudnation assists a number of countries in the issue of IT field development, including Moldova, Montenegro, Bahrain, Jamaica, Taiwan as well as 30 technological incubators in the countries of Latin America. At the same time EIF contributes to improvement of professional skills of youth, organizes retraining programs for competitive employees of the market and establishes innovative and incubation centers.

One of the Foundation's greatest achievements is establishment of technological centers in various regions in Armenia, due to which IT-field is being developed throughout Armenia preventing concentration of all the resources in Yerevan only. According to the Director of the Foundation 25 companies operate today in the Gyumri Technological Center, more than 5900 young specialists have been retrained and 500 new jobs have been opened. More than 50 companies received assistance, 12 of which financial aid.

One of the main activities of the Foundation is to promote national IT industry abroad, cooperation with transnational companies such as Microsoft, IBM, National Instruments, D-Link, Sinergy International Systems, Cisco Systems, Intel Corporation and others.

According to the source, EIF has invested $10 mln in the development of the field.

According to the National Statistical Service of Armenia the income of IT and telecommunications field totaled 170.2 bln drams in Jan-Sep 2016 with 0.1% y-o-y decline. Major share in total income accounts for services-149.3 bln drams (with 0.4% y-o-y growth).