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.
