Armenia should step up development of it industry

YEREVAN, May 20. /ARKA/. Armenia should step up the development of information technologies through the introduction of new tools, Director of the Enterprise Incubator Foundation (EIF) Bagrat Yengibaryan said on Wednesday at an online conference, organized by the Economic Journalists Club and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

According to Yengibaryan, studies of the impact of coronavirus on the situation in Armenian IT companies showed that supranational companies were hardly affected.

"Even though many of their parent companies abroad appeared in adverse conditions, their research centers in Armenia were not affected, and some even increased funding," Yengibaryan said.

In his words, the segment engaged in the development of local products and services has even grown several times, despite the fact that outsourcing companies suffered the most, even suspended large contracts until the situation is stabilized.
At the same time, companies in the engineering sector could not deliver their products to customers due to transportation problems.

“On the one hand, this is bad, but on the other, it’s a good lesson and an opportunity to understand how the country should position itself, including in the context of research and development,” Yengibaryan said.

As Yengibaryan noted, the crisis has revealed not only the flaws of the system, but has also opened up interesting opportunities, including re-positioning in the market. "It's time to take an inventory and understand our strengths, reposition companies and direct them to more successful areas," Yengibaryan said.

As an example, he noted that the education system has changed - 50% fewer students went to Harvard and Stanford universities. According to him, this means that Armenia should focus on education in order to become a leader in this field.

According to him, this is also a good chance for non-technology companies to develop their capabilities in order to increase their competitive advantage.

Speaking about security issues, Yengibaryan noted that it is necessary to develop solutions and offer them to the world. For example, New York has forbidden conducting lessons through Google or Zoom, and this is a good opportunity to occupy this niche by proposing new products.

"It is necessary to find new technological solutions for which huge demand has now formed in the world, and Armenia can occupy this niche," Yengibaryan said.

He said for the active development of the sector, it is necessary to create conditions for the influx of money into Armenia and enable technology companies to develop.

"It is necessary to create conditions for the return of Armenian companies that are registered in the United States, to encourage them to change their" residence" by providing them tax preferences," Yengibaryan said.