YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 9, ARMENPRESS. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the war, the Armenian high-tech industry’s turnover grew 20,6% in 2020, the Minister of High Tech Industry Hakob Arshakyan said in a news conference.

Arshakyan reminded that nevertheless the pandemic and the war hindered some projects. “But the high tech sector had a double digit growth in 2020. Turnover of companies grew 20,6% and amounted around 198 billion drams,” he said. The number includes exclusively high tech industry companies and doesn’t include communication operators.

The number of employees working in the sector grew 22%, reaching 18,747. The number of active companies also grew. 1228 active companies are operating in the high tech sector, and 192 new ones received certifications in 2020 and will benefit from the tax privileges defined by the ministry’s policy and law.

Speaking about startups of Armenian origin which operate scientific-research centers in Armenia, he said that these companies have attracted nearly 50 million dollars in investments in 2020, mostly from abroad. “This means that they created science-based products and companies in Armenia which were able to record the kind of results that became interesting for venture investors and other investors.

Taxes paid by high tech companies in 2020 grew 14%, surpassing 41 billion drams.

Arshakyan called on students seeking to obtain higher education to seek engineering professions, saying that this sector is growing rapidly in Armenia.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan