Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan attended the opening of the Regional Growth through High Technologies Conference in Gyumri. Addressing the forum, the Prime Minister noted that the motto of the conference reflects the right goal. The objective is to develop the high tech industry as one of Armenia’s economic priorities, which has great potential for attracting investments and promoting exports. At the same time, regional and community development is central in Armenia’s economic development vision.
“Combining the above two goals can provide the desired result. The Gyumri Technology Center is a good example of how to establish and develop a structure that can help develop technical and business skills, promote innovative research and development in the field of high technologies, commercialize the product of mind and talent, and transform it into successful business,” the Head of Government said, adding that as a result of nearly three years of extensive activity, the Technology Center has already created about 200 jobs. The Center has about 100 beneficiary companies, with over 500 professionals trained annually. There are 25 local and foreign organizations operational in the Center, many of which are exporting their solutions.
The Prime Minister believes it benefits the citizen, the city and the province since this process positively affects the development of our country’s economy. Karen Karapetyan stressed that the development of high technologies is directly related to the strategy enshrined in the Digital Agenda, which was formulated and is being implemented by the Digital Armenia Fund and the Center for Strategic Initiatives.
“The development and advancement of our country and our economy would have been impossible without the Digital Agenda. It will give an opportunity to ensure the competitiveness of our country, increase efficiency and the level of transparency in public administration, improve the business environment. Our technological centers can play a great role in developing and implementing the Digital Agenda. The State is extremely interested, welcomes and encourages our technology centers’ participation in this process,” Karen Karapetyan emphasized. The Premier underscored that we can witness the creation and dissemination of modern knowledge-based centers in our country.
The Prime Minister said it is gratifying to see such centers being established outside Yerevan. “The Gyumri Technology Center, the network of Tumo centers and the Smart Center operational in Lori are all success stories that make us believe in our ability to bring high technologies and innovation to our country’s distant regions. They are now accessible to our citizens regardless of how far they live from the capital. We will pursue this process with greater momentum, and stand ready to support any reasonable initiative,” the Head of Government said. Addressing the youth in attendance of the conference, Karen Karapetyan said they are the greatest potential of our country.
“We have a good opportunity to get everyone involved in this process of transformations that we have initiated both in urban and rural areas. We speak a lot about the Digital Agenda as it is extremely urgent – just a matter of the day. After describing and digitalizing our management subjects we can formulate our shortcomings, advantages and the motive powers,” the Prime Minister emphasized, wishing the forum successful proceedings.
The Conference is organized by the Enterprise Incubator Foundation and the Gyumri Technology Center in collaboration with the Government of Armenia, Shirak Marz administration, Gyumri Town Hall, Armenian Relief Fund, the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The two-day conference is attended by 150 young people from all regions of Armenia who are interested in technological education, engineering, programming and innovations. The purpose of the conference is to promote large-scale decentralization of information and high technologies based on the successful experience of Shirak Marz, train specialists in the field of information and high technologies, develop and expand the labor market in the provinces, offer attractive conditions for international and local investments, develop opportunities for the formation of electronic society by fostering people’s interest in the use of modern technologies, as well as shaping a relevant culture and mindset on the way to implementing the ideas of digital Armenia and electronic society.