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Silicon Mountains, a two-day conference dedicated to "smart solutions" in the ICT sector and world market developments in the nearest future, has kicked off in Yerevan today. The forum is organized by the Union of ICT Employers in partnership with the Ministry of High-Tech Industry of Armenia. The General Partner of the event is VivaCell-MTS.

VivaCell-MTS reported that within the framework of the conference, ICT companies and foreign experts, representatives of the Armenian business community, the public sector, startups and top students were present at the forum to discuss challenges of the coming years, prospects of modern technology developments and the importance of ICT in different sectors of economy.
Armen Sarkissian the President of Armenia and Hakob Arshakyan, Minister of high-tech industry of Armenia delivered welcoming remarks.

In his welcoming speech, President Armen Sargsyan noted that he fully supports the efforts aimed at the development of the technological sector in Armenia. According to him, artificial intelligence, new technologies, machine learning, and mathematical modeling are absolute priorities for Armenia.

“There is a lot of competition in the world today, and it takes a lot of effort and hard work to win and build your own port in the field of information technologies. We can do a lot together, both with our compatriots abroad and those who live in Armenia, with the state, the government, the private sector, with all Armenians already involved in industry, and with those Armenians who will be involved in future. I believe we can have the "Silicon Mountains" in Armenia because we are a hard working, honest, flexible nation that has experienced difficulties and found the right solutions,” noted Armen Sarkissian.

Hakob Arshakyan, Minister of high-tech industry of Armenia noted that 2019 was a technological year for Armenia.

«We plan to make Armenia a regional center. Why Silicon Valley is a center? Because there are big players, talented people who are eager to go there, as there is the infrastructure, the ecosystem, the opportunities to learn, to share, the chance to become a great company. Being a center means giving, being a center means having a strong ecosystem. The Armenian Virtual Bridge project aims to connect Armenia with other centers, such as the Silicon Valley. We plan to have our own area there where Armenian engineers and entrepreneurs can live, learn, have their office and plan projects for some time”, added the minister.
The special guest of the Silicon Mountains Forum was the winner of Global IT Award 2019, japanese scientist Dr. Takeo Kanade. His speech was devoted to Multi-camera Technologies. During the speech Dr. Kanade talked about his previous path, success and vision of the future.
“Its absolute honor for me to be announced as the Winner of Global IT Award 2019. I have heard that in Armenia high tech sector is more than just a slogan. That’s very respectful and being awarded by such a country is an honor,” Dr. Kanade added.

On the first day of the forum discussions on the following topics were held – Artificial Intelligence, cyber security, IOT, and modern tech education challenges.
Speakers from world famous companies, such as Microsoft, Cisco, nCipher Security and NXP Semiconductors took part in the forum.

Bremtane Moudjeb, Head of Cyber Security Sales at Cisco delivered a speech on cybersecurity.
Volker Semmelmann, Senior Systems Engineer nCipher Security, talked on the topic “Root of trust in a connected world”.

Dmytro Turchyn, Artificial Intelligence Lead of Microsoft’s Central & Eastern Europe HQ, shared his thoughts on recent advancements in Artificial Intelligence technologies.
Dmitry Koreyba, Cisco Business leader in Armenia, covered the topic of Challenges and Future of ICT education.
“Togather with local and international information and communication technologies companies and renowned experts, we set up a unique platform, which is to enable us to jointly identify the perspectives of the ICT sector development. Silicon Mountains aims at identifying Armenia’s potential in ICT area, finding potential areas of cooperation and synergetic effort, as well as integrating our capabilities. Silicon Mountains is expected to foster innovation and technological advancement, and most importantly, to support joint action,” VivaCell-MTS General Manager Ralph Yirikian said.

“Recently a lot of events are held in Armenia, and all of them, including Silicon Mountains, are an opportunity to mark Armenia on the technological map, as a country with huge potential. We can show the whole world that besides the fact that leaders from global markets visit Armenia and share their vision, we also have an opportunity to share our experience with them which they can take with them and apply to their companies,” noted Eduard Musayelyan, Executive Director of the Union of Employers of Information and Communication Technologies (UEICT).
On the second day of the forum, on December 5, B2B meetings will be held aimed at practical implementation of smart IT solutions in economy.