ArmInfo. In the first half of 2024, Armenia's IT sector shrank by approximately 13%. The main reason, according to former Economy Minister Vahan Kerobyan, is the missed opportunities that were available to us.
According to Kerobyan, in March 2022, one of the world's top consulting companies, commissioned by the Central Bank, presented the Government with a 32-point roadmap. The implementation of it would not only preserve the successes achieved, but also create a favorable environment for attracting innovative entrepreneurship to Armenia. This would also bring jobs, capital inflow, and talented, highly qualified specialists to the country.
"The people responsible for implementing this roadmap have not executed a single point of the program. Consequently, we have personally contributed to the Georgia's IT sector, which was nonexistent at the start of 2022, and is now nearly on par with Armenia's in just two years,'' the former minister wrote on his social media page.
According to him, over a year ago, his team developed a legislative initiative, that, if adopted, would have prevented the current decline and ensured the country's competitiveness. "The failure to adopt the initiative is the main reason for today's decline. Now a new package is being developed that will not only fail to ensure our competitiveness, but also lead to an outflow of not only international organizations, but also Armenian IT companies from Armenia," Vahan Kerobyan summarized. It should be noted that according to the latest data, 50, 000 specialists work in the information technology sector of Armenia. In 2023, the ICT sector of Armenia generated revenue of 883.2 billion drams (over $ 2.2 billion), which is a 54.8% increase from the previous year.
This is evidenced by the data from the RA Statistical Committee. The dominant segment in ICT is traditionally services, with a share of 68.6% (compared to 77.7% in 2022) or 606.2 billion drams, showing a year-on-year growth of 36.7%. The majority of services are in the information technology (IT) sector, totaling 449.1 billion drams, which is 52.4% higher than the previous year. Revenue from services in the telecommunications sector amounted to 148.3 billion drams, with an annual growth of 5.5%. However, the share of the ICT production segment decreased over the year from 0.5% to 0.1%, and revenue decreased by 63.8% to 972.1 million drams.
At the end of February in Paris, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, met with the heads of several French companies at the Elite Club of Political Dialogue.
During the meeting, he mentioned that the financial authorities are also working on enhancing the legal regulations of the IT sector to make the country more appealing to representatives of this industry.
On May 8, the Armenian government decided to allocate funds from the Ministry of High-Tech Industry to provide state support to commercial organizations and individual entrepreneurs in the IT sector in 2024. The decision was made within the framework of December 28, 2023 decision, which implies significant tax benefits, including a 50% reduction in income tax if certain conditions are met. Preliminary estimates suggest that state support will be provided to 55 organizations in the amount of 5 billion drams in 2024, and 2 billion drams in 2025.
The explanatory note accompanying the document indicated that state support was granted to 47 organizations, with a total of 7,857,245,293 drams being disbursed. In 2023, 46 organizations received 5,283,234,974 drams in 2023. Consequently, approximately 5,854 jobs were created.
