WE ARE LYING TO OURSELVES OPINION.

Panorama.am
15:53 26/07/2007

Armenian IT does not have much weight in the international arena.

This opinion was expressed by the director of the AEPLAC
(Armenian-European Policy And Legal Advice Centre) Armenian regional
office, expert Tigran Jrbashyan. "The field of information technologies
plays quite an important role in the economic development of the
country, but in the international arena this sphere does not have
much weight", – he said.

Tigran Jrbashyan considers that the IT sphere of Armenia faces serious
problems. "We are lying to ourselves thinking that our information
technologies sphere is attractive for foreign players. This is not
the reality", – he stated.

In this connection the expert clarified that the presence of American
investors in the Armenian IT market is conditioned by the fact that
the Armenian Diaspora of the USA is quite involved in this field. "The
investment attractiveness of the Armenian IT market is conditioned
not by real interest but a significant role of the Armenian Diaspora
in this field of the American economy", – he emphasized.

At that Tigran Jrbashyan added that further development of IT sphere
in Armenia is inexpedient on the background of serious problems in the
field of science and education. "One cannot achieve heights in the
field of information technologies not having a serious professional
base".

According to the data provided by the Ministry of Trade and Economic
Development, in 2006 the yearly growth of the Armenian IT made
about 15-20%, at that the yearly volume of the IT production was
estimated about 100 million US dollars. According to the data of
2006 the quantity of the companies working in this field in Armenia
is about 200.

More than 30% of them are companies with foreign investments. More
than 5000 people work in IT sphere. About 85% of the total volume of
IT production is exported. The part of the information technologies
in GDP makes about 2%.

The volume of foreign investments is estimated not less than 10-15
million US dollars. It is considered that in 2007 the investments in
the IT sphere will make about tens millions US dollars.