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.