Government approves the provision of grants to IT companies working  on the creation of products within the 17th package of anti-crisis  measures

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%.