Republican Party of Armenia

 Attended by Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, Digitech business forum kicked off in Yerevan under the motto of “Smart solutions for smart countries."

Welcoming the participants on behalf of the Government, the Prime Minister said. “During these years large-scale work was done in the private sector, and the results are outstanding. If we remember what we had in the field of information technologies five years ago, we can witness tremendous progress today. We can state that it is a step forward in international terms. We were able to reach substantial progress in both technological and innovational terms, including new knowledge generated by talented young people to boost production volumes, which is encouraging."

According to to Tigran Sargsyan, it is a vivid illustration of the fact that the world-famous companies prefer Armenia to other countries in the region, where they set up regional centers. In the opinion of the head of government, it is largely due to the forums held in United States, namely in Silicon Valley that enables our country to establish direct contacts with Silicon Valley-based leading companies to explore their experiences and use their channels to promote the development of the IT sector in the Republic of Armenia.

“I think it was crucial to have Armenia represented in Silicon Valley. A well-organized Armenian IT association is operational in Silicon Valley, which involves over a hundred organizations willing to establish cooperation with the Republic of Armenia. We must use this opportunity to give a new impetus to the development of the IT industry in our country,” Tigran Sargsyan noted.

According to the Premier, strong with an annual growth of 10-15 percent, the IT sector has set the task of training IT specialists before the government, which means that universities should be able to supply at least 1000 IT specialists a year. Competition was said growing in this area first of all in terms of high-quality personnel. From this perspective, IT training has become a priority to the government of Armenia.

In the Prime Minister’s opinion, the “e-government” program, which is implemented in cooperation with international organizations, including the World Bank, is a strong incentive for the development of this industry.

“If we want to be a competitive nation, strong with a competitive private sector, we must make better use of information technologies. This is why those companies and government agencies investing in information technologies enjoy higher productivity and become more competitive. This should be a priority to us, and we will have to carry out a complex program with the private sector in this field," Tigran Sargsyan pointed out.

Then the Premier evoked several projects conducive to visible and tangible results for our citizens. In particular, Tigran Sargsyan highlighted the use of information technologies in the system of State enterprise and land registries.

Tax and customs administration was said to be the third important sector to have resorted to large-scale IT application. This made it possible, on the one hand, to reduce the scope of direct contacts between taxpayers and tax officers and curb corruption in this sphere, and on the other hand, make the system more transparent and controllable.

Tigran Sargsyan also informed that the first lot of some 7500 highly performing, multi-functional cash-registers has already been imported into the country to be made available to large businesses as of this July 1.

At the same time, starting January 1, 2014, 60 thousand small and medium-sized businesses will be offered cash-registers of this type that will significantly improve efficiency in tax and customs administration.

“Our contacts with the private sector represent the next focus in this area. It is important for us to get feedback from you about state of affairs in this field and the barriers to business. The government should know what extra effort is needed to provide for a more favorable environment for extensive development. We expect a lot from this forum and will follow closely your discussions and recommendations. I want to reiterate that the IT sector is one of the priorities of my government. It is a success story in the field of public programs, which has already yielded tangible results. We should build on those achievements to ensure higher rate of economic growth, because the IT sector can help us become a more competitive nation,” Tigran Sargsyan emphasized.

For its part, U.S. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary John Heffern thanked the government for its IT focus and close interaction with the United States. The Ambassador said to have attended together with the Prime Minister last year’s edition of Armtech forum, which could serve a good example of close cooperation between the U.S. and Armenian companies.

“The U.S. companies are actively involved in Armenia. Close interaction is a must between the IT companies and other sectors of economy. The IT industry is doing a good job, with 40% of its output realized at home, which is a good indicator in terms of e-government," John Heffern said.

In turn, Executive Director of the Armenian Union of IT Enterprises Karen Vardanyan thanked the government for thoughtfulness of the IT sector and support of many innovative programs.

Digitech business forum is attended by some 62 companies, of which 43 are local entities, with 19 coming from the U.S., Russia, Singapore, Georgian, Italian, Ukrainian, etc.