YEREVAN, MAY 3, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenia's IT sector has entered a new stage of development - passing from the quantitative stage to the qualitative one. RA Deputy Minister of Trade and Economic Development Tigran Davtian stated this at the conference "Competitiveness of Armenian Information Technologies" held on May 3. In his words, IT is of great importance for economic growth of Armenia. T. Davtian noted that the country has much potential for developing this sector, while the use of IT in other sectors will help form the most competitive economy. The deputy minister said that while integrating into the international economic system, Armenia should first of all promote exports of IT production. According to Director of the Enterprise Incubator Foundation (EIF) Bagrat Yengibarian, conference participants envisage to discuss issues related to development prospects and strategy of the Armenian IT sector, promotion of IT industry, its workforce, sceintific research work, and telecommunication. A number of international organizations are also participating in the conference. B. Yengibarian said that a stable 20% annual growth has been registeted in the sector in the past five years. About 160 enterprises are currently operating in the IT sector, the number of jobs has reached 5 thousand, 80% of specialists work at foreign organizations. According to the latest information, in 2006, the IT sector's production amounted to 84 million dollars. Nearly 63% of production is exported.

---