Friday, 26 October 2012
Tigran Sargsyan: “Development of IT systems and telecommunications is a government priority”
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan attended the opening of “CIS money transfers: development prospects, new trends and technologies” conference which has kicked off in Yerevan.
Welcoming the participants on behalf of the Government, the Prime Minister said. “Two thirds of Armenians are living abroad, which means that remittances are of paramount importance to us. We must eye the future trying to bring out all the challenges and risks we can face in this area. The conference is important from this point of view as your experience and knowledge will help us expose the main development vectors in the field of money transfers.”
According to the Premier, technological developments, the emerging technologies and electronic systems have much to do with this industry, therefore Armenia attaches great importance to the development of information systems and, in general, the telecommunications sector.
“In recent years we have made significant progress taking up leading positions in the region by the number of internet users, internet tariffs and coverage. Over the next few years, we will carry out such reforms as may have a serious impact on the remittances sector,” the Prime Minister noted.
Tigran Sargsyan advised that an electronic tax reporting system is being introduced which is currently used by ten thousand different organizations. Starting next year, all the taxpayers will communicate with tax authorities exclusively through electronic returns.
“This means that they must have an electronic signature. The government is going to subsidize it for small and medium businesses, which means that a sound groundwork is being built in Armenia for the development of e-banking and money transfers,” the head of government stated.
Speaking about the banking sector, the Prime Minister stressed that the Government has been able to dramatically strengthen the system. “Armenia boasts a strong banking system. Unlike other CIS countries, the first wave of the financial crisis bypassed our banking sector owing to high level of capital and liquidity,” the Prime Minister said.
The conference is attended by delegates from the Russian Federation, the CIS countries, Georgia and the Baltic states, including heads of major banks, international organizations and representatives of banking associations and payment systems.
