1 / 1

On June 21, the member of the RA NA delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC) Gevorg Gorgisyan delivered a speech at the Fifty-First General Assembly Session going on in Tirana on the theme – Development of the Nationala Innovation Systems in the PABSEC Member Countries.

“First of all, on behalf of the whole Armenian delegation of PABSEC I would like to express our gratitude to our Albanian colleagues for the warm welcome and the proper organization of the committee meeting.

I would like to present you the current situation in Armenia on the topic of discussion. It is important to note that the development of the innovation sector in Armenia is currently one of the key components of the economic growth in the country. Armenia is currently in the 59th position by the Global Innovation Index report 2017. The same report places Armenia in the 47th position by the number of international patents per capita and number 17th in the world by the Innovation Efficiency Ratio.

The duty of developing and stimulating innovation technologies in Armenia is highlighted in the government programme. In order to produce highly qualified specialists in Armenia, numerous educational programs have been initiated. Some of the particularly successful programmes are as follows:

ARMAT educational programme provides schools with engineering and robotics laboratories. Such laboratories have been installed already in 220 schools in Armenia and are now successfully in operation. ARMAT programme is also being exported to various countries.

The project TUMO center for creative technologies is a unique educational programme and currently franchises its services to various countries.

Technology centres in the cities of Gyumri and Vanadzor, the first SMART Center in Lori Region is an exceptional model for rural development through technology and innovation. Important role for the field are playing educational programmes in collaboration with different international innovation corporations and projects, among which are the followings: Armenian National Engineering Laboratory founded in collaboration with National Instruments Microsoft Innovation Center IBM Innovative Solutions and Technologies Centre Synopsys Armenia Educational Department

It is a programme that provides free access for the federal scientific centres and universities to the scientific databases such as Springer and Web of Science.

In May 2016 Armenia has become an associate member of the framework programme of research and innovation Horizon 2020 funded by the European Union.

This membership provides access for the scientists and researchers in Armenia to one of the largest science funding programmes currently active in Europe.

To conclude my speech, I would like to emphasize that Armenia has been approved as the hosting country for World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) 2019 from October 6-9. It is expected that 2000-2500 delegates from more than 80 countries of the world will visit Armenia. WCIT will be the first Congress being held in Europe since 2010. The World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT), the largest and the most reputable international event among worldwide IT leaders. We will be glad to host representatives of PABSEC member countries in Yerevan as participants of WCIT 2019. With this, I would like to wish all of us an efficient and productive work,” the Armenian delegate said.