IT companies play leading role in Armenia, but economy is not always ready to use their solutions

One can often hear the opinion that high-tech companies do nothing for Armenia and work mainly for other countries. Hakob Arshakyan, the vice-chairman of the National Assembly of Armenia, is sure that this is not the case. At a conference titled "National Science-Technological and Innovative System of Armenia: From Problems to Revival" and organized by Gituzh initiative he said that the economy is not always ready to use the solutions offered by such companies.

According to him, thanks to the high-tech community and companies present in the country today, it is possible to produce certain types of weapons and supply them to the army. Without these companies, there would simply be no military industry in the country, and some types of weapons would be unavailable to us, because we could not buy them, but today they are produced here.

In addition, the vast majority of supermarkets today use solutions developed in Armenia for both warehouse management and automation of many different processes.

High-tech companies also offer a number of useful solutions in the field of agriculture, such as drones, which can make a number of agricultural tasks faster and cheaper.

Another issue, according to Arshakyan, is that our economy is often not ready to accept and use high-tech solutions.

"I often give this example: if a person comes to an electronics store and doesn't know what he needs, he is likely to choose the wrong thing. Or he will not choose anything at all, saying that he does not need all of them, even though these products can change the quality of his life. For example, a smartphone, a car or other devices that completely change a person's life," he said.

According to Arshakyan, Armenia's high-tech sector has huge opportunities and can use them in various sectors of the economy. Moreover, such companies as Picsart, Krisp, Synopsis Armenia, etc. help to build the country's image and make it recognizable abroad, which is also very important.