SECOND CONFERENCE ON COMPETITIVENESS AND INNOVATION OF ARMENIAN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES OPENS IN YEREVAN

Noyan Tapan

Ma y 14, 2008

YEREVAN, MAY 14, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian government has set the goal
of implementing a rapid technological transformation of the country
and reducing the current technological gap, especially in terms of
information technologies, between Armenia and developed countries,
the RA minister of economy Nerses Yeritsian stated at the second
conference on competitiveness and innovation of Armenian IT. The
conference opened in Yerevan on May 14.

In his words, for this purpose several pilot programs are being
implemented in Armenia in order to lay the basis of state – private
sector cooperation in the IT sector’s development. The head of the
ministry – the event’s organizer expressed a hope that the conference
participants will identify the problems of IT sector’s development
and outline their solutions.

According to Hayley Alexander, director of the USAID-financed
Competitive Armenian Private Sector (CAPS) Project – another organizer
of the event, the conference aims to prepare IT companies’ entrance
into the financial market, as well as to discuss the regulation field
of their activities and problems related to the implementation of
investment and educational programs.

The director of the USAID Economic Development Office Rolf Anderson
attached special importance to assistance to the IT sector, saying
that sector has great potential in terms of contributing to Armenia’s
economic growth and its competitiveness. He said that from the
viewpoint of IT sector’s development level, Armenia is among leading
countries in the CIS and the Middle East. According to him, the United
States’ share in the investments in the IT sector amounts to 70%.

The first day of the conference was dedicated to subjects of
promoting IT competitiveness, including certification and protection
of copyright and intellectual property. The main developments in the
telecommunication sector were also presented.

A number of new and innovation products of Microsoft (MS Windows Server
2008, MS Visual Studio 2008, MS SQL Server 2008) will be displayed
on the second day of the conference. Special attention will be paid
to the models of optimization of Microsoft infrastructures as a form
for planning the development of IT capacities, as well as to the IT
sector’s several major tendencies which will have a transforming effect
on the infrastructures and use of software in the next 3-5 years.

The conference is being held in cooperation with the Union of IT
Enterprises of Armenia, the Armenian Association of Three-Dimensional
Modeling, the Association of Advanced Technology Experts and the
E-Content Association.

Among the event’s organizers are also Microsoft RA company and the
Enterprise Incubator Foundation.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress