ArmInfo.As part of the 17th package of anti-crisis measures presented by the government in early September 2020, 64 of 330 companies working on the creation of their own product will be awarded grants. A similar decision was made on February 11 at a meeting of the Armenian government.
Presenting this issue, RA Minister of High-Tech Industry Hakob Arshakyan noted that the grants should have been distributed much earlier, however, due to the outbreak of hostilities in Artsakh, the envisaged financial resources for this package were directed to the needs of the Armed Forces. He recalled that grants will be distributed by category: in the first case, we are talking about companies that are registered in the country and have been successfully operating on the market for more than two years. They are provided with grants in the amount of up to 20 million drams. The second category of grantee companies covers those that have been in operation for less than two years. For them, the amount of grant assistance will be up to 10 million drams.
According to the minister, the funds will be provided to companies as soon as technical issues are resolved, including those related to clarifying the list of beneficiaries.
Noting that, as Arshakyan previously reported, in 2020 Armenian high-tech startups managed to attract $ 50 million from foreign markets, Arshakyan expressed hope that these 64 companies, thanks to the development of their products, will be able to arouse investment interest in international markets.
The minister informed that the total turnover of companies operating in the field of high technologies in 2020 increased by 20.6%, amounting to 198 billion drams. The number of employees in this industry increased by 22%, reaching 18,747 people, and the number of active companies reached 1228.
According to the minister, 192 new companies received certificates in 2020, thanks to which the latter, according to the law, will receive new benefits. At the same time, as the head of the high-tech department further said, the volume of taxes paid in this industry increased by 14%, exceeding 41 billion drams. According to the RA Statistical Committee, the revenue of the entire field of information and telecommunication technologies (ICT) in 2020 reached 318.1 billion drams (about $ 650.6 million), exceeding the indicator of a year ago by 2.8%. This general decline in growth dynamics is mainly due to the drop in revenues for the country's telecom operators.
It should be noted that so far the manufacturing segment in the ICT field has traditionally the smallest share - only 2.1 billion drams (or 0.7%), with an annual decline of 40.3%.
