Tuesday, September 15 2020 21:20

ArmInfo. In Armenia, there is a tendency to rollback from the declared principles for the  formation of a knowledge-based economy. On September 15, RA second  president Robert Kocharyan stated this in an interview with a limited  number of journalists.

According to him, the structure of the country's economy is beginning  to deform towards the mining industry. As the second president  considers, the mining industry also needs to be developed, taking  into account all the risks associated with environmental protection.  Moreover, prices on international sites are so favorable that  business entities can make investments in compliance with more  stringent environmental standards. However, the structure of the  country's economy is not changing. "We can have an economy based on  science, but for that we need to start with education.  Without the  development of the educational system, it is quite logical to ask the  question of how this can be achieved," Robert Kocharyan said. He  recalled that in Soviet times there was a powerful polytechnic  institute in Armenia, which trained personnel for developing  industries. There were, in particular, specialties in  electromechanics, chemistry, which were received by young people for  the powerful electrical and chemical industries. It is impossible to  develop engineering if there are no corresponding industries.

In any case, as Robert Kocharyan noted, everything must start with  education. Without education, it is impossible to turn the country  into state of IT specialists. All over the world, Ireland has the  most advanced experience in the field of information technology,  where this area accounts for 8-9% of the country's GDP. But in this  particular case, a large role belongs to the world's largest  companies in the field of information technology, which are active in  this country.

The second president pointed out the importance of digitalizing the  entire country, the entire public administration system. "Whether  work is going on in this direction or not, I have great doubts about  this," said the second president.  He pointed to earlier reports that  an employee of the National Security Service should be next to the  investor.  Meanwhile, the very last person an investor would like to  see in Armenia is an employee of the National Security Service. All  this speaks about the worldview of the authorities, which do not  represent the psychology of businessmen.  Changes, including in the  structure of the economy, cannot occur due to orders, it is necessary  to create conditions. The second president recalled that the IT  sector was proclaimed a priority area of development by the country's  previous authorities. In this process, meetings are held with  investors, specialists to streamline a set of issues. Everything that  was developing at that time - the IT sector, jewelry, agriculture,  all this was accompanied by a set of meetings and the adoption of  appropriate decisions, whether it was on tax benefits or customs  preferences. As an example, Robert Kocharyan cited the invitation to  the country of the Synopsys company, which today is the most advanced  in its field.