Ambassador: Armenia and Lithuania have a high potential for  cooperation in the field of IT

ArmInfo. Armenia and Lithuania have a high potential for cooperation in the field of IT. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Lithuania to the Republic of  Armenia Inga Stanyte-Tolockiene stated this during a meeting with  Minister of High-Tech Industry Robert Khachatryan. In particular, she  attached importance to the deepening of the Armenian-Lithuanian  cooperation in the field of ICT within the framework of the EU  partnership.

According to the press service of the Ministry of High-Tech Industry,  during the meeting the parties exchanged views on the current level  of cooperation in the technological field and ongoing programs. In  particular, the minister and the diplomat touched upon Lithuania's  experience in the field of digitalization, IT, e-government,  artificial intelligence, discussing in this regard the possibilities  of cooperation in these areas.

Minister Khachatryan highly appreciated the level of cooperation,  attaching importance to the implementation of programs in the field  of space technology, which, according to him, may have new prospects  for cooperation.

The official presented the Ambassador with the "Engineering City"  program, in which, in addition to companies that are residents of  Armenia, players from other countries can also be involved. In this  regard, he expressed hope that the Lithuanian business will also take  advantage of this opportunity.

It should be recalled that at a meeting on March 1, 2018, the  Government of Armenia approved the concept of creating an Engineering  City and the schedule of activities arising from the document. The  goal of the program is to turn Armenia into a country that exports  engineering and high-tech products and services to the global market,  as well as a regional hub of innovative solutions. To create the  Engineering City, an area of 3 hectares was chosen on the Bagrevand  street. The program is planned to be implemented on the basis of  public-private partnership. The planned volume of investments will be  $21.2 million, of which $10.5 million is government co-financing  under the World Bank Promoting Trade and Quality Infrastructure loan  program. A consortium of Inst 14 joint-stock companies and National  Instruments AM make the remaining investments.

The program is expected to become self-sustaining in its 4th year of  operation. Within the framework of the project, it is planned to  train and retrain 1,500 specialists in the field of engineering and  high technologies.  2000 new workers will be opened and 20 new  enterprises will be founded in the field. It is also expected to  increase the efficiency of companies by 40%, and export volumes by  30%.

According to the Statistical Committee, in January-April this year,  foreign trade turnover between Armenia and Lithuania increased  2.2-fold, providing a volume of $6 million. In particular, exports  amounted to $3.2 million with a 2.6-fold increase, while imports grew  by 84% to $2.8 million.