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The statistics office also reported a 22.7% increase in computer manufacturing.
The first Armenian tablet, ArmTab, was produced by Technology & Science Dynamics (TSD) founded within the Yerevan-based Mergelyan Computer Research and Development Institute.
The government is seeking to support local computer and tablet manufacturing. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian announced in July that his cabinet had switched from Apple laptops to computers manufactured in Armenia.
A few days later, Pashinian said the government would start using eco-pens made from recycled paper, also by TSD.
Alfa Bank to part finance Megafon shares buy out
Leading Russian mobile phone company Megafon has obtained a three-year RUB21bn ($312mn) loan from Alfa-Bank to buy out its own shares and take the company private again, the company said in a statement.
The status of the public company "is not a strategic priority" of the operator, Megafon reported in July when it made the decision.
Before delisting, Megafon intends to buy back shares in free float. The company has offered to buy the shares from investors between July 16
to August 22 and will purchase up to 128.95mn common shares (20.8%), traded on the Moscow and London (LSE) exchanges in the form of global depositary receipts (GDR), at $9.75.
If all minority shareholders sell their shares, Megafon will spend about $1.25bn on redemption, Gevorg Vermishyan, the company's executive director, said.
Russia to consider net neutrality legislation
Laws on net neutrality principles obliging Internet service providers to treat all data equally without discrimination or varied speed and not to charge depending on user, content, or website have
been introduced by the Russian council on digital economy development to the Federation Council, the Kommersant daily reported on August 6.
The measures could negatively affect Russian telecom majors and providers, which would lose flexibility and the ability to diversify the tariffs.
In 2016 the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) already prepared the base draft of the net neutral- ity bill, which was coordinated with Vimplecom, MegaFon, MTS, Rostelecom mobile majors and large internet providers, as well as with Internet majors Yandex, Mail.ru, and the government.
The bill allowed for "traffic management" in cases necessary to curb cyber-attacks, in emergency situations and during overloads, as well as under court rulings.
Representatives of Rostelecom, MTS, and other telecom players told Kommersant that the previ- ous FAS draft maintained a status quo, and also was seen as a compensation to Russian providers for the additional costs of implementing the anti- terrorist data storage, "Yarovaya Law" package.