Vahan Kerobyan: We "gave" the IT sector to Georgia with our own hands

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.