DIRECTOR OF ENTERPRISE INCUBATOR FOUNDATION: COMMERCIAL BANKS OF ARMENIA ARE RELUCTANT TO REGISTER EXTENSION FOR PURCHASE OF COMPUTERS

ArmInfo
2009-10-23 17:13:00

ArmInfo. The commercial banks of Armenia do not always formulate
extension for purchase of computers with willingness, Director of
the Enterprise Incubator Foundation (EIF) Bagrat Yengibaryan told
journalists, Friday, when commenting on the course of the pilot
stage of the "Computer for Everybody" program. According to him, the
reason is that the banks do not consider the computer as an object
of pledge because of its quick amortization. "The value of a new
computer considerably drops within a year, therefore the banks have
no sufficient guarantee in case of the extension",- Yengibaryan said.

According to him, to look for solutions to this and other problems,
it was decided to hold a pilot stage before the main stage of the
program. The pilot stage may clarify the issues of provision of
extension, the order of submission of applications by citizens
and consideration of these applications by banks, as well as the
population’s preferences in the sphere of e-content. "We want to take
into account the experience of the pilot program when holding the
main program",- he said. He added that the program helps discover
the computer shops wishing to participate in the program.

"For instance, representatives of a formerly unknown computer shop
have recently applied to us for the criteria of participation in the
program. Thus, besides providing the population with computers, we
unexpectedly manage to solve another problem as well",- Yengibaryan
said. To recall, the pilot stage of the program "Computer for
Everybody" was launched in September 2009. A total of 500 computers
will be sold under this program. It is envisaged to launch the main
stage in 2010.

Head of Microsoft Armenia Country Manager Grigor Barseghyan said that
similar result are given by implementation of the Microsoft BizSpark
program, under which the start-up IT companies receive an opportunity
to use the licensed software of Microsoft for their developments. "We
receive an opportunity to get knowledge of new teams of developers that
have been registered nowhere before",- Barseghyan said. According to
him, about 10 start-up companies are currently participating in the
program in Armenia.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress