Monday,
Global IT Forum Starts In Armenia
• Emil Danielyan
Armenia -- A panel discussion is held during the World Congress on Information
Technology in Yerevan, October 7, 2019.
More than 2,000 technology professionals, business executives and government
officials from around the world are taking part in the latest World Congress on
Information Technology (WCIT) that began its work in Yerevan on Monday.
The three-day forum is held under the aegis of World Information Technology and
Services Alliance, a global consortium of national IT associations. It will
feature more than a dozen keynote speakers and over 80 prominent panelists.
The participants include senior executives of tech giants like Google, Siemens
and Ericsson as well as Armenian-American celebrities such as reality TV star
Kim Kardashian, the Reddit social media platform’s co-founder Alexis Ohanian
and rock musician Serj Tankian.
Armenia -- A sign at the entrance to the main venue of the World Congress on
Information Technology in Yerevan, October 7, 2019.
Kardashian arrived in Yerevan early on Monday together with her children and
sister Kourtney. Organizers have said that she will speak, both as a “special
keynote speaker” and panelist, about “how decentralized technologies have
democratized the worlds of entertainment, media, and journalism.”
Armenia is using the WCIT conference to promote its burgeoning IT industry that
employs some 15,000 engineers and generates more than 6 percent of the
country’s Gross Domestic Product.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian touted the industry’s achievements and tax
breaks granted to it by the current and former Armenian governments in his
speech at the opening session of the conference. “As a result, the IT sector
grew nearly fivefold over the past seven years, boasting a sustained 20-25
percent annual growth,” he said.
“Hosting such a major event is a great honor and pleasure for us, because it is
a great opportunity to talk to you and to the international community about our
strategy to make Armenia a high-tech country,” declared Pashinian.
Armenia -- An exhibition is held as part of the World Congress on Information
Technology in Yerevan, October 7, 2019.
“I hope that this truly memorable event will change a lot in the technology
world’s relations with the Republic of Armenia,” he added.
The Armenian tech sector is dominated by local subsidiaries of U.S.
corporations as well as a growing number of homegrown firms. Some of them,
notably the U.S. software giant VMware, are among the sponsors of the 2019 WCIT.
VMware’s chief operating officer, Rajiv Ramaswami, met with Pashinian later in
the day. He noted that the number of IT engineers working at his company’s
Armenian branch has increased more than tenfold, to 200, since it was opened in
2010.
“We are very happy to invest in human talent which is available in Armenia,”
Pashinian’s press office quoted Ramaswami as saying. “We have only one request
to you: please increase human talent, invest in technology education.”
Armenia -- The Armenian branch of the U.S. software firm VMware takes part in
the annual Digitec Expo in Yerevan, October 6, 2018.
A shortage of skilled personnel is widely seen as the main challenge facing the
local IT sector. Industry executives have long complained about the inadequate
quality of education at IT departments of Armenian universities. Many of their
students require additional training after graduation.
In a bid to alleviate the problem, an Armenian organizer of the WCIT, the Union
of Advanced Technology Enterprises (UATE), has opened over the past decade over
284 engineering labs in schools across the country. They offer schoolchildren
extracurricular robotics and computer programming courses mostly financed by
the government. The Armenian Education Ministry announced last week a sharp
rise in government funding for the UATE which will be used for doubling the
number of those labs by the end of this year.
Global IT Forum Starts In Armenia
• Emil Danielyan
Armenia -- A panel discussion is held during the World Congress on Information
Technology in Yerevan, October 7, 2019.
More than 2,000 technology professionals, business executives and government
officials from around the world are taking part in the latest World Congress on
Information Technology (WCIT) that began its work in Yerevan on Monday.
The three-day forum is held under the aegis of World Information Technology and
Services Alliance, a global consortium of national IT associations. It will
feature more than a dozen keynote speakers and over 80 prominent panelists.
The participants include senior executives of tech giants like Google, Siemens
and Ericsson as well as Armenian-American celebrities such as reality TV star
Kim Kardashian, the Reddit social media platform’s co-founder Alexis Ohanian
and rock musician Serj Tankian.
Armenia -- A sign at the entrance to the main venue of the World Congress on
Information Technology in Yerevan, October 7, 2019.
Kardashian arrived in Yerevan early on Monday together with her children and
sister Kourtney. Organizers have said that she will speak, both as a “special
keynote speaker” and panelist, about “how decentralized technologies have
democratized the worlds of entertainment, media, and journalism.”
Armenia is using the WCIT conference to promote its burgeoning IT industry that
employs some 15,000 engineers and generates more than 6 percent of the
country’s Gross Domestic Product.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian touted the industry’s achievements and tax
breaks granted to it by the current and former Armenian governments in his
speech at the opening session of the conference. “As a result, the IT sector
grew nearly fivefold over the past seven years, boasting a sustained 20-25
percent annual growth,” he said.
“Hosting such a major event is a great honor and pleasure for us, because it is
a great opportunity to talk to you and to the international community about our
strategy to make Armenia a high-tech country,” declared Pashinian.
Armenia -- An exhibition is held as part of the World Congress on Information
Technology in Yerevan, October 7, 2019.
“I hope that this truly memorable event will change a lot in the technology
world’s relations with the Republic of Armenia,” he added.
The Armenian tech sector is dominated by local subsidiaries of U.S.
corporations as well as a growing number of homegrown firms. Some of them,
notably the U.S. software giant VMware, are among the sponsors of the 2019 WCIT.
VMware’s chief operating officer, Rajiv Ramaswami, met with Pashinian later in
the day. He noted that the number of IT engineers working at his company’s
Armenian branch has increased more than tenfold, to 200, since it was opened in
2010.
“We are very happy to invest in human talent which is available in Armenia,”
Pashinian’s press office quoted Ramaswami as saying. “We have only one request
to you: please increase human talent, invest in technology education.”
Armenia -- The Armenian branch of the U.S. software firm VMware takes part in
the annual Digitec Expo in Yerevan, October 6, 2018.
A shortage of skilled personnel is widely seen as the main challenge facing the
local IT sector. Industry executives have long complained about the inadequate
quality of education at IT departments of Armenian universities. Many of their
students require additional training after graduation.
In a bid to alleviate the problem, an Armenian organizer of the WCIT, the Union
of Advanced Technology Enterprises (UATE), has opened over the past decade over
284 engineering labs in schools across the country. They offer schoolchildren
extracurricular robotics and computer programming courses mostly financed by
the government. The Armenian Education Ministry announced last week a sharp
rise in government funding for the UATE which will be used for doubling the
number of those labs by the end of this year.
Trial Judge Denies Bias Against Kocharian
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia -- Judge Anna Danibekian presides over the trial of former President
Robert Kocharian and three other former officials, Yerevan, October 7, 2019.
The judge presiding over the trial of Robert Kocharian dismissed on Monday his
lawyers’ claims that she is biased against the Armenia’s arrested former
president and must therefore recuse herself from the case.
The lawyers voiced the demands after the district court judge, Anna Danibekian,
twice refused to release Kocharian from custody last month.
Danibekian took over the trial from another judge, Davit Grigorian, who ordered
Kocharian’s release in May. Grigorian was controversially charged with forgery
and suspended in July.
The lawyers petitioned Danibekian to free Kocharian and drop coup charges
brought against him after Armenia’s Constitutional Court declared
unconstitutional on September 4 a legal provision used by investigators against
their client. Danibekian ruled on September 17 that the Constitutional Court’s
decision does not apply to the former president. Three days later she also
refused to grant him bail.
“You have a negative biased attitude towards Kocharian,” one of the defense
lawyers, Hayk Alumian, told Danibekian on Monday.
Armenia -- Former President Robert Kocharian (R) talks to his lawyer Hayk
Alumian during his trial, Yerevan, October 7, 2019.
Alumian accused her of deliberately and illegally delaying decisions on
petitions submitted by Kocharian’s legal team in August. He also alleged
serious procedural violations in judicial authorities’ decision to assign the
case to Danibekian. They knew that she will not rule in the ex-president’s
favor, claimed Alumian and other defense lawyers.
The trial prosecutors defended the judge, saying that she is impartial and did
not breach any laws or legal procedures. After a short deliberation, Danibekian
rejected the lawyers’ latest demands.
The coup charges leveled against Kocharian and three other former senior
Armenian officials stem from the 2008 post-election violence in Yerevan which
left eight opposition protesters and two police personnel dead. The prosecutors
say that Kocharian illegally used Armenian army units against protesters
demanding the rerun of a disputed presidential election. They also accuse him
of large-scale bribery.
Kocharian, who ruled Armenia from 1998-2008, rejects the accusations as
politically motivated. The three other defendants also deny any wrongdoing.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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