Armenia’s IT Industry Has Huge Unused Capacity For Dealing With Russ

ARMENIA’S IT INDUSTRY HAS HUGE UNUSED CAPACITY FOR DEALING WITH RUSSIA

YEREVAN, April 2. /ARKA/. Armenia’s IT industry has a huge unused
capacity for dealing with Russia, Karen Vardanyan, executive director
of the Union of Information Technology Enterprises, told journalists
on Thursday.

In his words, Russia’s share in Armenia’s IT exports is just 7%,
while the United States’ share is 66%.

“Taking into account our proficiency in language and culture of this
market, we can say that our export capacity is almost not used,”
Vardanyan said.

In his opinion, trust-based relations should be established between
the two countries’ companies, which may later develop into particular
joint projects.

Armenia exports 3D and animation products as well as games and mobile
applications to Russia now, while in the future these directions can
be expanded to high-tech levels.

Vardanyan stressed that the Armenian law is quite liberal toward
startup companies and the government has set considerable preferences
for them.

This creates favorable environment for registration of joint startup
companies in Armenia.

Armenia had more than 380 IT companies in early January 2014. Of
them, 159 operate with foreign capital or represent large foreign
companies here.

In 2000, Armenian government announced IT industry development its
top-priority objective.

The country’s IT sector accounts for 20-25% growth every year. The
sector’s share in GDP is 3.8%. In accordance with the IT development
strategy, this industry’s turnover is planned to be increased to $1
billion by 2018.

On December 17, 2014, Armenian National Assembly adopted some laws
implying government support for IT industry, especially for startup
companies. In particular, startup companies are exempted from paying
profit tax for the first three years of their activity and they will
pay their income tax at a preferential, ten-percent rate. —-0—-

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress