Republican Party of Armenia

Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan attended today the opening of the eighth ArmTech high-tech business forum in Yerevan. Held annually under the auspices of the Prime Minister Republic of Armenia, the Enterprise Incubator Foundation-supported forum is co-hosted by the Government of the Republic of Armenia and the World Bank.

Welcoming the organizers and the participants, the Prime Minister noted that this important annual event seeks to promote new technologies, help attract investment and establish partnerships.

“In recent years, Armenia has made great progress in the field of information technology. In the period 2008-2014, a 15-20% growth was achieved in the IT sector, which is also due to the Government’s efficacious policy in this sphere. There are numerous large companies operational in Armenia, such as Microsoft, Cisco, D-Link, Oracle, Synopsis and Mentor Graphics. Microsoft and IBM have co-founded Microsoft’s Innovation Center and a center for innovative solutions and technologies in Armenia, A set of bills on State support through tax incentives for startup IT companies was passed last year to help create new jobs in this area. As a result, some 50 entities have emerged with over 200 highly qualified jobs,” the Head of Government noted.

Highlighting the need for training and retraining activities, Hovik Abrahamyan advised that a series of training centers and labs had been established over the past couple of years, including the Armenian-Indian Center of Excellence of IT Technologies, Armenia’s National Engineering Laboratory, the Training Department of Synopsis Armenia and others.

The Premier stressed that the Government is keen to provide for balanced regional development in this field as evidenced by the launch of the technological center in Gyumri, the mobile solutions center in Kapan, as well as the projected launch of a technological center in Vanadzor.

“At the same time, we have implemented a number of programs aimed at promoting technology-oriented entrepreneurship, including the Innovation Development Program, the Venture Fund of Armenia, co-financed grant facilities provided in Gyumri and Vanadzor, several research and technology entrepreneurship programs, etc.

Important is that domestic IT companies have been gradually giving up the outsourcing vector for research and development in order to provide full-fledged engineering solutions and sell competitive products on foreign and domestic markets. We will be consistent in our efforts aimed at developing the IT sector,” the Prime Minister emphasized.

Thanking both local and international partners for valuable contribution to the development of the IT sphere in Armenia, Hovik Abrahamyan wished the forum successful proceedings.

To remind, the first edition of ArmTech was held in San Francisco in 2007 and is held in Armenia and the USA alternatively. ArmTech seeks to promote the high tech industry in Armenia through the involvement of leading international companies. The forum is annually attended by well-known IT professionals and organizations from all over the world.

The following items will be on the agenda this year: development of high technologies in Armenia, startup acceleration and regional development, education, research and development.

The STEP Venture Conference of the Program of Research, Technology and Enterprise and the closing award ceremony of “Clean technologies: Armenia-2015” contest will be held in parallel.
For the first time this year, ArmTech will hold a special session in Stepanakert on October 14 to discuss development of high technologies in Nagorno-Karabakh. The event is co-hosted by the governments of the Republic of Armenia and the NKR.