Informatico

The potential for commercial and industrial co-operation in the high-technology areas, which are being experiencing a particularly fast-proceeding development in Armenia, is definitely high. The country used to being one of the technologically advanced hubs in the former USSR and has further developed this aptitude also after its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.  This process has also been enhanced by the Armenian diaspora resident in the USA that, by a favourable coincidence, is mainly located in California and therefore is also dealing with high technology from an entrepreneurial point of view. The high technology sector has considerably soared since after the trade embargo imposed from Azerbaijian and Turkey on Armenia. As a matter of fact, the highly increased costs of road  transports to and from the country caused by the embargo itself has determined a side development of those business activities which are not subject to road transports for their trades, and which can count on a particularly favourable ratio cost per unit/transport. That is namely the case of high technology units. Information technology above all is an area which is being shown growing interest in. Lycos Europe delocalised in Armenia some of its activities in 2005, confirming to be aware of the qualifications of Armenian IT programmers. More than a dozen US enterprises have settled their branches in Armenia. On December 16, 2005 the French enterprise Alcatel – which has already set up a partnership with the mobile phones provider VivaCell – and the Ministry for Trade and Commercial Development made an agreement in Tunis, during the UN World Summit on the Society of Information. On the base of the agreement, the French company will support the Armenian Enterprise Incubator Foundation. Financed in 2002 by the World Bank, the Foundation had been specifically set up so as to promote the development of IT in Armenia.