GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS DOES NOT AFFECT AMOUNT OF
INVESTMENTS IN ARMENIA'S INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR
21-11-2008 18:00:00 | Armenia | Economy
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 21, NOYAN TAPAN. According to
international experts, despite the global financial crisis, the
amount of investments in the IT sector is growing. The
investments attracted by Armenian IT companies have also
increased as compared with last year, the director of the
Enterprise Incubator Foundation Bagrat Yengibarian announced at
the November 20 press conference.
In his words, it became clear from a conversation with the
president of Macadamian company (Canada) which has a subsidiary
in Armenia that a growth of investments in IT industry was
recorded both in Canada and the U.S. "Macadamian and National
Instruments have doubled the number of employees in their
Armenian subsidiaries which means that a decline in investments
is out of the question," B. Yengibarian noted, adding that the
other foreign IT companies have also increased the number of
their employees in Armenia.
The executive director of the Union of IT Enterprises of
Armenia (UITE) Karen Vardanian said the global financial crisis
has had a various impact on IT companies around the world,
depending on the extent of the damage done by the crisis to the
sector serviced by the given company. Engineering centers of
foreign companies mainly operate in Armenia, demand for IT
engineering solutions has not declined and so the crisis has not
had a highly negative impact on Armenian IT sector, while in
some subsectors a growth has been recorded.
Nevertheless, K. Vardanian expressed an opinion that with
the aim of withstanding the consequences of the global financial
crisis in Armenia in the next three years, the state and private
sector should develop a strategy with a list of measures, as it
was done in a number of countries. One of the issues on the
agenda of the meeting of heads of Armenian IT sector to be held
in Dilijan on December 5-7 will be dedicated to such a measure.
During the event, issues of relations of Armenia's IT sector and
tax and customs bodies will be discussed, as, according to K.
Vardanian, a slowdown of reforms has been noted here. Besides,
the problem of developing electronic government in Armenia will
be examined. It is also envisaged discussing together with
Georgian experts the opportunity of using Georgia's experience
in the development of electronic payment systems. The annual
amount of electronic payments makes 20 million dollars in
Georgia.
K. Vardanian said that this is the first "without-tie"
meeting of Armenian IT sector's heads, in which representatives
of foreign companies will take part. The previous 7-8 meetings
had 60-100 participants.