GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS DOES NOT AFFECT AMOUNT OF INVESTMENTS IN ARMENIA’S INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR

Noyan Tapan

Nov 21, 2008

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 21, NOYAN TAPAN. According to international experts,
despite the global financial crisis, the amount of investments in
the IT sector is growing. The investments attracted by Armenian IT
companies have also increased as compared with last year, the director
of the Enterprise Incubator Foundation Bagrat Yengibarian announced
at the November 20 press conference.

In his words, it became clear from a conversation with the president
of Macadamian company (Canada) which has a subsidiary in Armenia that
a growth of investments in IT industry was recorded both in Canada
and the U.S. "Macadamian and National Instruments have doubled the
number of employees in their Armenian subsidiaries which means that a
decline in investments is out of the question," B. Yengibarian noted,
adding that the other foreign IT companies have also increased the
number of their employees in Armenia.

The executive director of the Union of IT Enterprises of Armenia (UITE)
Karen Vardanian said the global financial crisis has had a various
impact on IT companies around the world, depending on the extent of
the damage done by the crisis to the sector serviced by the given
company. Engineering centers of foreign companies mainly operate in
Armenia, demand for IT engineering solutions has not declined and so
the crisis has not had a highly negative impact on Armenian IT sector,
while in some subsectors a growth has been recorded.

Nevertheless, K. Vardanian expressed an opinion that with the aim
of withstanding the consequences of the global financial crisis in
Armenia in the next three years, the state and private sector should
develop a strategy with a list of measures, as it was done in a number
of countries. One of the issues on the agenda of the meeting of heads
of Armenian IT sector to be held in Dilijan on December 5-7 will be
dedicated to such a measure. During the event, issues of relations
of Armenia’s IT sector and tax and customs bodies will be discussed,
as, according to K. Vardanian, a slowdown of reforms has been noted
here. Besides, the problem of developing electronic government in
Armenia will be examined. It is also envisaged discussing together
with Georgian experts the opportunity of using Georgia’s experience
in the development of electronic payment systems. The annual amount
of electronic payments makes 20 million dollars in Georgia.

K. Vardanian said that this is the first "without-tie" meeting of
Armenian IT sector’s heads, in which representatives of foreign
companies will take part. The previous 7-8 meetings had 60-100
participants.