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.