ArmInfo. As of today, 1,500 companies involving 16,000 people are involved in the field of information technology in Armenia. This was announced at the online press conference of the Club of Economic Journalists by the Deputy Minister of High-Tech Industry of Armenia Stepan Tsaturyan.
The deputy head of the department informed that the ministry has developed a number of strategic directions for the development of the industry and will soon send them to the government for discussion. According to Tsaturyan, they include such areas as the application and development of high technologies in the military-industrial complex (MIC), the development and creation of various IT centers (incubators, technology parks, technology hubs, etc.), operating at the institutional level, and development of mechanisms to assist domestic IT companies to go abroad and promote their products there, creating favorable conditions for this.
He noted that the world is highly competitive in this direction and therefore measures should be taken. Which would allow the Armenian IT industry to move at a very high pace. As a result, according to the deputy minister, if today, in accordance with the international IT development index, Armenia is still in 85th place, then after the adoption and implementation of the strategy, a few years later the goal is to increase the country's position, bringing it to at least 50th place. In the meantime, the IT sector is developing restrained dynamically, occupying about 4% in the structure of GDP and annually showing an increase of 0.5%.
In terms of development components, the agency intends to continue to pay increased attention to the educational component. To this end, it is already throwing bridges of cooperation with major world educational centers such as Rapper University. Five people have already been selected on a competitive basis, who, at the expense of the state, will undergo special training there. A major educational project could be the creation of special training projects where up to 2 thousand people can be trained with the possibility of further employment. In response to a question from ArmInfo, the deputy minister emphasized that today, despite some difficulties associated with the coronary crisis, the domestic IT industry needs 3 thousand additional jobs. These vacant positions can be filled precisely thanks to the implementation of such programs. Tsaturyan also considers an important component to work to help IT companies promote their products in world markets through cooperation with renowned consulting companies. Scientific development and promotion will become important for the development of the industry, including in the defense industry through the creation of a single closed chain, the so-called specialized environmental environment. This is even more important due to the fact that recently 4 large defense industry enterprises have become subordinate to the Ministry.
Tsaturian noted that the crisis associated with the coronavirus showed the importance of the availability of digital technologies for widespread use by the population, creating a sick network of public services, developing IT in the banking sector, ensuring reliable cybersecurity systems for this, creating common standards. There is a need to increase the availability of high-speed Internet for the population.
Speaking about the consequences of the crisis, the deputy minister noted that some companies today lost overseas orders, some of them "sank" by 40-45%, and as a result, many specialists were virtually unemployed. In this regard, the Ministry has developed and is implementing various grant programs to support IT companies in the amount of 10 to 20 million drams, depending on goals and plans.
An important component of the IT development strategy remains the active participation of Armenian companies in various expo-exhibitions. Last year, the companies participating in them signed contracts totaling $ 400 thousand.
