ArmInfo. Armenia officially starts organizational work on the holding of the Global Congress-2019 (WCIT-2019) in Yerevan, which will be held from 3 to 6 October. This was announced by the chairman of UITE Alexander Yesayan on February 24 during a press conference. He noted that Armenia will have to implement a huge amount of work.
In turn, UITE Executive Director Karen Vardanyan noted that today Armenia already has a program of envisaged work on the organization of the congress, prepared sponsorship packages, developed a web page design, conducted branding, at the stage of finalizing work on developing branding for B2B meetings.
According to Vardanyan's estimate, WCIT-2019 will gather about 2 thousand delegates from different countries of the world, of which half will be Armenia and Diaspora, about 500 - from developed countries, and the remaining part - Representatives of the markets that are of interest to Armenia, in particular the African, Arab markets and the Latin American market.
In addition, he noted that a government commission had been set up a few months ago, but so far no full meetings had been held. "We hope that after the next Congress in India from 19 to 21 February, the meeting of the commission will be held soon, and we will hold relevant discussions, and as a result, we will ensure the progress of the preparations," he stressed.
The budget of the envisaged works has not been specified yet, but according to preliminary estimates it will amount to several million US dollars, Vardanyan said. "Everything depends on the number of participants, and the program of our events for the reception of guests," he explained. In this regard, Vardanyan said that $ 750 thousand will be allocated from the state budget as a mandatory contribution, stipulated by the organizers for the right to host the Congress. In particular, he noted that until May of this year Armenia should present the project itself to the World Alliance of IT Associations (WITSA). "Even after discussions with WITSA, it will be possible to talk more specifically about the envisaged events," he stressed.
Answering the question of ArmInfo, A. Yesayan noted that thanks to the holding of the Congress, Armenia will have an opportunity to present domestic potential on the international scene to world leaders and giants of the IT sphere. Speaking about the competitiveness of Armenian IT products, he noted: "If we compare with India, we can not compete with them in the quantitative and price segment, but from the qualitative point of view, the Armenian IT product takes a high position. In particular, the mathematical direction of IT in Armenia is quite competitive. If we manage to adequately position ourselves at the Congress, we will be able to attract large additional investments into the sphere."
Note that the Congress is organized since 1978 by the World Alliance of IT Associations (WITSA) and has been held every two years in different countries, and since 2017 - annually. WCIT is the world's largest IT event and gathers top managers from leading companies, university leaders and research centers, as well as the world's highest representatives of the world - more than 2,000 delegates and 50 exhibitors. This year the Congress was held in Hyderabad (India).
According to the National Statistical Service of Armenia, the IT sector of Armenia as of the end of 2017 reached a 13.6% growth, providing an annual revenue of 269.1 billion drams ($ 557.5 million). According to the National Statistical Service of the Republic of Armenia, 80.1% of the total volume of the IT sector's revenue falls on the services provided, with an annual growth of 6.5% to 215.5 billion drams. Considering the anticipated GDP in 2017, the share of the IT sector will be about 5% of GDP.