YEREVAN, May 30. /ARKA/. Armenia’s bourgeoning IT sector saw a 17% growth in 2015 and a combined output soaring to about $550 million, according to economy minister Artsvik Minasyan.

Speaking at the parliament today he said a last year survey revealed around 400 active IT companies with about 15,000 employees on their payrolls.



He said due to a string of tax breaks designed to boost the IT sector, 79 startups were founded last year with 329 new jobs.



A government bill approved by the National Assembly last year, exempts IT startup companies from profit tax until the end of 2019. Besides, the government lowered income tax rate for their employees to 10 percent of their gross wages as opposed to the minimum payroll tax rate of 24.4%.



According to official data, the export-oriented sector has been expanding by more than 20 percent annually from 2008, driven largely by the subsidiaries of U.S. hi-tech firms such as Synopsys, National Instruments, Mentor Graphics and VMware, as well as Oracle, D-Link Corporation and others. -0-





19:09 30.05.2016