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YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan on September 27 attended the opening ceremony of the 10th ArmTech 2017 global congress, press service of the government told Armenpress.
Welcoming the participants, the PM said this annual event is an important platform to present the field’s achievements, reveal new business and investment opportunities, promote cooperation and exchange experience. “The government of the Republic of Armenia, guided by the imperatives of increasing economy’s competitiveness and ensuring continuous economic growth, attaches importance to this field, the necessity to build economy on knowledge. We should state that in recent years Armenia recorded significant progress in the development of information and high technologies and has all the necessary preconditions and potential to become a regional center and key player. During 2008-2016 an annual average 20-22% growth in the IT field has been recorded which is also due to the policy run by the Armenian government. But we must not be limited with this, this is not the end of this field, and the growth rates, in my opinion, can be much higher”, the PM said.
He stated that currently the government together with the private sector implements numerous programs aimed at promoting information entrepreneurship, increasing export and investment volumes, attracting supranational organizations, territorial proportional development of the field, preparing qualified IT specialists and enhancing the educational capacities which in its turn promotes Armenia’s stable positioning in the world technological map. He emphasized that today leading IT companies, such as Synopsys, National Instruments, Microsoft and others are operating in Armenia. Tax privileges are provided to newly-established entities of the field aimed at boosting the field and creating jobs. The statistics shows that over 100 companies in the field are being established annually.
“We also appreciate the fact that Armenian companies operating in information and high technologies field gradually shift from previous outward orientation to research and development companies proposing complete complex engineering solutions which are being sold both in the foreign and domestic market. Today we have serious competitive advantages both in the region and compared to other countries”, he said.
The PM also highlighted the fact that this year the Congress is being held on the topic of cybersecurity. “In today’s situation of technology development, the world faces numerous challenges the solution of which is impossible without solving the cibersecurity, information security problems. And as much as we succeed to be effective in this field, the faster we will ensure the entry of technologies to daily life”, he said, and thanked the partnering local and international organizations for the regular assistance to Armenia’s IT field development. “We will consistently continue the policy aimed at developing information and high technologies field in Armenia and will deepen and expand the cooperation with international and local companies which will promote increasing the field’s competitiveness and ensuring stable economic growth in the field”, the PM said, wishing productive work to the Congress participants.
ArmTech Congress, the 10th Global Armenian High Tech Business Conference, is aimed at further expanding the frontiers of Armenian high-tech industry promotion and attracting new participants and prominent representatives of the global technology community.
Considering the recent development in cybersecurity and the crucial need for Armenia to enhance its information and cybersecurity, this year’s ArmTech’ 17 will be devoted to cybersecurity and will bring together international cybersecurity experts, governmental and academic leaders to discuss the future of cybersecurity landscape.
The conference organizers are Armenia’s ministry of transport, communication and IT and Enterprise Incubator Foundation.