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YEREVAN, OCTOBER 21, ARMENPRESS. Armenia is a wonderful place for the creation of start-up technology companies: the procedures are simple, legislative framework – favorable. “Armenpress” interviewed director of ViasphereInternational, founder and Chair ofArmTech Congres Tony Moroyan.
Will you mention some of the reasons which make Armenia attractive for technology companies?
The companies can achieve success here. In reality Armenia is lucky to have become independent in the 90s. If it were 30-40-50 years ago, it would have taken longer for Armenia to have progress. At that time the Internet, cell phones, and other means for connecting to the world did not exist. Now you can design projects here, create an application and quickly achieve success and enter international market if your ideas and solutions are good ones. Entering markets is easier now.
There is favorable legislative framework for the activities of start-ups in Armenia but simultaneously there are technology companies that prefer to be registered in other countries. In your opinion, what reforms should be made in Armenia at legislative level?
One of the most important things is the protection of intellectual property rights. Armenia signed international agreements related to it but it is important to apply them and that the Government of Armenia supervises the process.
Thousands of companies create intellectual property in Armenia. If they feel that they cannot protect it, they will leave. The courts here do not have any progress in the sphere of protection of intellectual property rights.
Some specialists speak about creating Ararat Valley. Is it possible?
We have said that Yerevan is Silicon Valley of the Caucasus, different companies can grow here but much effort should be made in order to make it a reality. The creation of Silicon Valley took 40-50 years from the USA.
Are there any big companies interested in coming to Armenia?
The most important thing is to keep balanced presence of small and big companies. We started the development of IT sphere with small companies. If very big companies come here - the salaries in this sector have became much higher - how they can compete with other countries? The number of people is low. We speak here of involvement of millions of people within each project, 8-9 specialists are trained here annually. We must be very careful in this regard.
Maybe labor migration into Armenia will be organized?
If the salaries become higher, people will get interested in returning to Armenia. But balance should be kept in other sectors as well.
Our companies have had serious success in recent years. It positively influences the increase in recognition of technological Armenia. What is your opinion on this?
ArmTech international congress contributed to raising awareness of venture funds about Armenia. It will be very good if many companies become a success here. A venture fund will not come and make investments if the company is purely Armenian. If a company is an international one, it is more effective.
There are good specialists in Armenia and the schools are also improving.
The Armenians have flexible thinking they can find solutions to different problems but they are not the only clever people. We must know our capabilities but never overestimate them and develop strategic ways for moving forward.
By Ani Nazaryan