News - Legislature vice-speaker complains about reduction of programs in Armenia IT sector

The programs being implemented in the IT sector are being reduced in Armenia. Hakob Arshakyan, deputy speaker of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia from the majority Civil Contract Faction and former minister of high-tech industry, stated this during the debates on the draft 2024 state budget at the joint meeting of parliamentary standing committees in the NA Tuesday. According to him, in 2021, 562 million drams were allocated as grants to Armenia’s IT startups within the framework of the "From Idea to Business" program, and those funds were intended for 50 IT companies. "In 2022, that amount was 350 million drams. In 2023, the amount remained the same. They are grants that [IT] startups receive to enter the market. We need them for investments in technologies," said Arshakyan. In addition, as the parliamentarian noted, the "Virtual Bridge" project was launched in 2020. However, later the coronavirus pandemic and the war started. As a result, the program was completely excluded from the state budget; and that—in the case when it was planned to spend about 1 billion drams. The program, in particular, gave Armenia’s IT entrepreneurs the opportunity to be trained abroad, including in Silicon Valley. The NA vice-speaker focused also on the "University-private sector cooperation: training of specialists" program, which involved mass training of workers in various domains. "In 2020, when it was launched, 5,225 people were trained. In 2021, that figure was 2,896, in 2022—791, in 2023—only 500 people," said Arshakyan. The funding of this program has reduced, too—from 390 million drams in 2020 to 100 million drams in 2023. According to him, the number of people in Armenia engaged in the IT sector should increase, not decrease, the country should promote education, particularly in computer technology. As per Hakob Arshakyan, the IT sector is Armenia's future, and the country has a competitive advantage in this respect.