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On June 6, the RA NA Vice President Hakob Arshakyan took part in the European Communication Summit on Connecting the Unconnected: Europe & Beyond.

Welcoming the organizers and the participants of the event, the NA Vice President touched upon the importance, opportunities and challenges of the Internet. “During the last twenty years, humanity has overcome significant challenges and implemented a new technological revolution, and today we are witnessing the wide availability of information on vehicles and UAVs controlled by computer technology and the Internet,” Hakob Arshakyan said adding that this progress creates both great opportunities and serious challenges.

Speaking about the opportunities, he noted that the access to the Internet has given humanity great opportunities to get alternative education, access to education through new technologies, which was hard to imagine before. In the context of the development of the Internet and technologies, the NA Vice President also spoke about the importance of the development of transport and logistics systems. “Having global positioning systems, the Internet, now you can get orientated anywhere in the world,” he stated.

According to Hakob Arshakyan, Armenia is in a fairly good position in terms of Internet access all over the world: the reactions of the tourists also testify to this. According to him, this affects the ranking of our country, the development of tourism, and the quality of people’s lives.

Touching upon the challenges, he opined that they exist both in Armenia and throughout the world. In this context, the NA Vice President spoke about certain restrictions for children regarding information security and access to the Internet. The Deputy Speaker of Parliament mentioned that in this regard, work is being done at the legislative level in order to create the necessary toolkit for families, children, schools and certain groups.

The Government programme for 2021-2026 aims to provide 80% of settlements with broadband Internet: the RA Deputy Minister of High-Tech Industry Avet Poghosyan spoke about this. He added that now 66.6% are provided with broadband internet, which includes 96% of the population. According to the Deputy Minister, it is a pretty good index.

An honored technologist of the global Internet Society organization Michuki Mwangi welcomed the participants of the event online. The President at ISOC AM Chapter NGO Igor Mkrtumyan also spoke about the problems of Internet access in Armenia.

The aim of the two-day summit is to bring together experts and the concerned organizations in Armenia and around the world and discuss the possibilities of providing Internet access in distant communities. During the panel discussions, the participants recorded that the Internet connection is among the priorities today and creates equal opportunities for the balanced development of communities and touched upon the mechanisms of providing additional Internet access.