Science could play an essential role under the conditions of the global
crisis
10.03.2009 15:34
Alisa Gevorgyan
`Radiolur’
`For any country with restricted natural and human resources the best
means for increasing the GDP is the development of the scientific
industry. Armenia is one of those countries,’ Chairman of the State
Committee on Science Samvel Harutyunyan told a press conference today.
According to him, under the conditions of the current global economic
crisis, the development of applied sciences could be of essential
importance, and that’s what the steps of the Government should be
targeted at.
Commenting on the state of science in Armenia, Samvel Harutyunyan
stated: `If we compare today’s situation with that of Soviet times, the
situation is really bad, but Armenia is in a rather advantageous
position against the background of other post-Soviet republics,’ the
scientist says.
According to Samvel Harutyunyan, there are 7 500 scholars in the
country today, who are highly skilled specialists. Besides, Armenia
comes second after Russia all over the post-Soviet space with the
number of grant programs implemented over the past years. All this
speaks about the great scientific potential of our country, which is
not fully used for the development of economy. The crisis has brought
about the imperative to correct the mistakes and omissions.
`For effective work the Armenian scholar today needs certain social
conditions and targeted government programs. In the private sector
there is lack of trust in scientists and scientific results,’ Samvel
Harutyunyan said. According to him, the development of the
`science-economy’ link with state support is important for drawing the
attention of the private sector to scientific results.