YEREVAN, OCTOBER 6, NOYAN TAPAN. The number of participants and the variety of products and services displayed at DigiTec exhibitions grows year by year, which means that serious progress has been made in the IT and hightech sector, Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan stated at the opening ceremony of the 4th international IT anf hightech exhibition DigiTec 2008 held in Yerevan on October 3-5. He expressed a hope that the implementation of the measures envisaged by the IT development concept, which was recently approved by the Armenian government, will ensure a rapid development of the sector in the coming years, and the continuous holding of DigiTecs should be a striking evidence of it. After visiting the exhibition pavilions, T. Sargsyan told reporters that the representatives of the majority of companies that have participated in DigiTecs have said that the number of their customers has sharply grown in the past two years. In his opinion, this contributes to the increase of Internet use in Armenia, which was the main obstacle to the development of the IT sector for years on end. He attached importance to the fact that the variety of products and services envisaged for educational institutions has expanded at DigiTec 2008. In the words of the prime minister, the IT companies are aware of the importance of the united electronic network linking all the Armenian schools and make investments that contribute to the implementation of governmental programs in education. "I am sure that in 2-3 years we will see a qualitatively different environment forming in the sector," he stated. The exhibition included various events, in particular, the demonstration of the film "Science and Technology Museum" about the museum of the same name founded in Armenia, as well as holding a series of "Digilife" seminars and the innovation forum "DigiTec-Start Up" with the assistance of the Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development National Center (SME DNA).

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