Wednesday, May 20 2020 20:27

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.