The Government of the Republic of Armenia

Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan attended today the opening of “ArmTech Congress 2011” 4th annual forum of high technologies in Armenia. This year’s forum is held in the framework of activities dated the 20th anniversary of Armenia’s independence, under the motto of “Learning from the past, discovering the future.”

The forum is organized with the assistance of the Government of the Republic of Armenia, the Enterprise Incubator of Armenia, “Synopsis Armenia,” “Viasphere Technopark,” Armenian Development Agency, “Unicomp” union of information technology enterprises and companies.

The forum’s goal is to support the long-term development of high technologies in Armenia, as well as encourage the strengthening of international business relations and further growth of investment. “ArmTech Congress 2011” will open up new business and investment opportunities, create a new connection, and an extended professional network.

Statements will be delivered by authoritative representatives of public agencies, academic institutions, as well as private sector representatives from Armenia, United States, Europe, Russia and other CIS countries.

Welcoming those present on the opening of the forum, the Prime Minister stated: “ArmTech Congress 2011” was officially recognized by the government as a business forum on high technologies held with a view to supporting long-term development of this industry in our country, encouraging cross-border business ties and growth of investments.

From this perspective, there have been dramatic changes in this sphere over the past three years. This is primarily due to sharp increase in Internet availability. Thus, in 2008 the price of Internet connection for one megabit-per second was one million 200 thousand drams, while in 2011 it was only 50 thousand drams. It is the most significant and profound change making the Internet accessible to our citizens.

If in 2008 there were 80 thousand Internet users in Armenia, in 2011 it was already used by some 341 thousand people. If in 2008, the number of users of cell phone services amounted to one million 300 thousand, they are 3 million 331 thousand today.

It is clear that the aforementioned improvements in terms of Internet availability indicate that the Armenian society has changed in quality and that the Internet is available everywhere in our country. It is no secret that innovations in the sphere of information technologies and telecommunications significantly increased the efficiency of our economy.

There is no such sphere where information technologies do not commit revolutionary changes in terms of productivity. This enhances the security, availability of information and, most importantly, changes the social thinking. The ArmTech Congress 2011 is just the platform enabling the Government, together with the other stakeholders, to eye the future, disclose Armenia’s comparative advantages and focus on them.

From this perspective, the experience of recent years shows that our comparative advantage is our talented specialists. As a consequence, in this area, we have begun to specialize primarily in the production of complex software products. So we have brilliant examples, some of which I will state below:

Firstly, within the framework of the memorandum of cooperation signed between the Government of the Republic of Armenia and Microsoft in May 2011, Yerevan hosted the Innovation Center of Microsoft, which has the goal of using the tools and programs of Microsoft to create a corresponding environment for development of skills and opportunities, improvement of business skills and promotion of innovative ideas.

The programs are being implemented by the Enterprise Incubator Foundation with the support of Microsoft, the USAID, the Governments of Armenia and the Yerevan State University.

Small and medium-sized enterprises are assisted through courses, seminars and sharing of know-how as hosted by the Innovation Center Microsoft, applying innovative and effective means. Microsoft’s is the largest innovation center in our region to serve as a model for similar centers in Central Europe. We are proud that we have such serious progress with Microsoft.

Secondly, in November 2011, the YSU will host an Indian-Armenian Learning Center. This is a joint project of the Governments of the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of India as implemented by Enterprise Incubator Foundation and the Indian C-DAC Center. It is considered to be the largest investment in the sphere of information technologies in the region.

Its main mission is to create a special environment for professional study of information technologies and scientific research in this area that might promote the development of human resources of world-class information technology and serve as a hub for research of high-speed computing. PARAM Indian supercomputer is due to be set up whose connection to Armcluster will make of it the largest computing cluster in the region, stimulating research in the fields of biotechnology, meteorology, environmental protection and in other related areas.

The contest of CIS States as announced by the Government of Finland, NOKIA and the World Bank was attended and won by the Enterprise Incubator Foundation. Due to this, in 2011 Armenia will host a regional lab of mobile solutions for the countries of Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia. It will be one of five major labs, designed worldwide and its activities will be aimed at creating a favorable environment for commercialization of mobile solutions and production, technical and managerial skills, establishing linkages between regional enterprises and professionals and attracting investment.

Within the framework of Gyumri Techno Park, a regional laboratory of software development opened this summer by D-Link International, a Taiwanese company, which is a global leader in network and telecommunication equipment manufacture and sales.

Considering the exceptional success of the Gyumri project D-Link plans to build in Gyumri one of its world centers with at least 60 starting jobs. We are pleased that the company representatives will make a statement to that effect at this ArmTech Congress 2011.

This fall one of the world’s largest engineering organizations - the Singapore-based ST Kinetics will officially launch activities in Armenia. This organization has established a branch in Armenia to deal with a research laboratory and development platform for autonomous equipment and machines.

The algorithms developed in there will be marketed throughout the world. Over the next ten years the company plans to invest USD 1-2mn annually in Armenia. ST Kinetics is engaged in architectural programming of ground equipment and systems – air and sea transport means.

The aforementioned initiatives are primarily based on the availability qualified and experienced specialists in Armenia who can offer innovational solutions. We must develop our comparative advantage.

Information technologies and telecommunications have been developing dynamically in our country for the past three years despite the adverse economic impact of the global economic and financial crisis.

“Digitech” exposition and “Armtech” forum suggest that we still have untapped growth potential in this area and we expect that upward trends in this field will continue high in the coming years.

There are 300 IT enterprises in Armenia and it is encouraging that both “Digitech” and “Armtech” aroused great interest. We have 5500 specialists in the sphere of information technologies, and, if allowed for telecommunications, the number of domestic specialists will rise to 10 thousand.

Despite this, an important fact was noticed during the meetings held with the participants in the field of information technologies. In this area in our country every year, there is a demand for 1000 specialists. This means that the potential growth amounts to 20 per cent of the demand which today represent existing companies who have attained success.

USD 200 million-worth of information technologies are annually produced in Armenia. The share of the IT sector in the GDP is today comparable to mining industry, but its growth rates will be higher over the next three years.

Wishing fruitful work to forum participants, I can assure that the close ties of cooperation between the Government and the private sector will be continued. In different formats, our periodic meetings help us identify the obstacles that still exist in this field and their elimination could contribute greatly to the development of this sector.

Also, I would like to thank all those representing the IT sphere whose efforts have ensured a well-deserved place for our country on the global market of information technologies.”