YEREVAN, AUGUST 7, NOYAN TAPAN. Although Azerbaijan suspasses Armenia in terms of accessibility of telecommunication resources, the latter is ahead by IT sector's technological potential and the presence of the world's leading IT companies in Armenia. The director of Synopsys Armenia company Hovik Musaelian stated this at the August 7 press conference. In the opinion of the USIAD Competitive Armenian Private Sector (CAPS) Program IT cluster head, IT Foundation's chairman G. Chugaszian, Armenia has some advantages in this competition: the activities of Diasporan Armenians in the IT sector, as well as the traditions of developing IT sector in Armenia which have formed over the past 50 years. According to him, Azerbaijan incurs considerable expenses, particularly in the telecommunication sector, but Armenia surpasses Azerbaijan in terms of production capacities of its IT industry. But this advantage may disappear because free economic zones have been cretaed in Azerbaijan, and Armenia should also take steps in this direction. G. Chugaszian said that Eastern European, in particular South Caucasian countries are competing in the IT sector. Steps aimed at promoting this sector are being taken in Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Czech Republic, and Slovakia. Azerbaijan has become such a country in recent years, starting to make substantial investments in IT at the expense of oil revenues.

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