Minister: Budget allocations for RA military industry will more than  double in 2020

ArmInfo. In January 2020, Armenia will hold an extended discussion with international partners in order to understand in which direction, at what pace, and most  importantly, at what means the sector of the military-industrial  complex will develop. Minister of High- Tech Industry Hakob Arshakyan  announced this on December 18 at the final press conference.

According to him, today 3 strategies for the development of the  sector have been developed: for the development of high-tech  industry, digitalization and the military-industrial complex of  Armenia for 2020- 2025. The document has already been put into  circulation and submitted to the public.  As the minister pointed  out, in 2019, the department increased the financing of the  military-industrial complex by AMD 984 million to develop new  projects at the expense of the money saved. The funds, as Arshakyan  emphasized, were allocated about 2 months ago and have already been  disbursed. "Sector allocations in 2020 will double," the head of the  department said.

According to him, if earlier the financing of the sector was carried  out mainly from the point of view of carrying out research and  experimental design work, then from 2020 capital investments will  also be drawn into the sector.

Earlier, ArmInfo reported that in order to turn Armenia into a  high-tech military-industrial country of manufacture and exporter,  the state budget in 2020 provides for the Ministry to allocate about  12.5 billion drams. So, on November 15, Minister of High Technology  Industry Hakob Arshakyan stated from the rostrum of the National  Assembly of the Republic of Armenia that in 2020, 12.5 billion drams  will be allocated from Armenia's state budget to implement projects  in the military-industrial complex, high-tech and information  technologies and digitalization of the country. At the same time,  expenditures on the development of the military-industrial complex  will increase by 122%, amounting to 6.3 billion drams, some of which  will be used to conduct scientific, technical and design studies, and  the other - to develop production capabilities taking into account  the needs of the defense department and access to finished products  international markets.

As Arshakyan noted, with the participation of interested parties, the  Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Dispute of the Republic  of Armenia developed a program aimed at providing "university-  production" communication, which will enable companies to conduct  retraining of personnel within the higher educational institutions.  In 2020, it is planned to retrain about 6 thousand specialists, three  thousand of whom are in Yerevan, the rest in the regions. The state  will direct about 200 million drams for these purposes. It is also  envisaged to provide 90 grants for startups for their formation and  access to international markets. The volume of state financing of  these startups next year will be about 1 billion drams. For its part,  the ministry, according to its head, also launched an initiative  according to which at least 20 start-ups will receive additional  grants, which will make investments in the country's regions, thereby  contributing to the proportional development of the regions.

In order to promote exports, the government plans to internationalize  goods and services. 425 mln drams will be allocated for these  purposes. In 2020, as part of the country's digitalization, it is  planned to create a single information platform, which will be the  result of work done in 2019 to collect data from all ministries and  departments. The creation of the platform will allow to establish  common functions of standardization, and, accordingly, will  facilitate the access of goods and services to international markets.  It is planned to direct 450 million drams to the solution of the task  by the state budget project.

Next year, the state will take steps to improve the infrastructure of  communications and telecommunications, which will be allocated 1  billion drams. This program will become consistent until 2024, with  its implementation 5 billion drams of budget resources will be used.   In addition, in early 2020, active work will begin on the  construction of an engineering city in Yerevan.  This project is  implemented on the basis of public-private partnership. It is  envisaged that 35 companies will be deployed in the engineering city,  which will create 1,500 new jobs.