Crisis is not a hindrance: Information Technologies keep on developing in Armenia

Participants of an Information Technologies conference in Yerevan say the IT sector in Armenia has grown, despite the world economic crisis.

A the conference put on by Competitive Armenian Private Sector Project (CAPS), funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID, USAID’s David Hall said reforms in customs and taxation were among reasons for the growth during difficult financial times.

Participants of an Information Technologies conference in Yerevan say the IT sector in Armenia has grown, despite the world economic crisis.

A the conference put on by Competitive Armenian Private Sector Project (CAPS), funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID, USAID’s David Hall said reforms in customs and taxation were among reasons for the growth during difficult financial times. He also said the appearance of a third mobile communications operator, Orange, in Armenia, as well as better cooperation between the private sector and government were factors in the growth.

“The competitiveness of IT in Armenia may highly promote rapid inculcation of advanced technologies in Armenia, as well as the implementation of the international practice, and the creation of an Armenian educational base” Armen Abrahamyan, IT Cluster Coordinator at CAPS, stated at the conference.

In the 1990s the IT sector started actively developing in Armenia, and a number of foreign and especially U.S. companies opened their representative offices in Yerevan, currently reaching 210 enterprises, of which 58 are foreign owned. The companies export $70 million in product annually to 20 countries.