News - Parliament deputy speaker: Armenia has no contender in high tech

Armenia has no contender in the high-tech sector. Hakob Arshakyan, deputy speaker of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, stated this during the debates on the draft 2024 state budget at the joint meeting of parliamentary standing committees in the NA Tuesday He noted that last year more than 60-percent growth was recorded in this sector in Armenia, the number of employees in this sector exceeds 43 thousand in the country, and its part in Armenia’s GDP exceeds 5.1 percent. Arshakyan reminded that this year around 12 billion drams of support was given to Armenia’s exporting companies that were affected by the US dollar exchange rate in their signed contracts and to the companies that just entered the market and assistance was provided in terms of employee income tax. "There is no doubt about the fact that Armenia just has no contender in the high-tech sector in terms of competitive advantage. That is, Armenia is in the first place with all competitive parameters from the point of view of competing with other countries, developing the industry. It also shows the continued growth of the sector," said Arshakyan. At the same time, he listed some projects being implemented in the high-tech sector, where negative dynamics were recorded in Armenia. "I want to hope that during this budget discussion we will have proposals to restore the programs that have been withdrawn and the budgets of those programs that have been reduced. Otherwise, it will turn out that we are talking about the high-tech future of Armenia without investing in that future with these specific programs," said the NA vice-speaker.