Pashinyan: "Education" is Key to Armenia's Tech Growth

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attended the opening of the "Silicon Mountains 2025" technology summit, which is titled "Anatomy of Artificial Intelligence."

The summit was attended by leading technological, scientific, and innovative leaders from Armenia and around the world.

The Prime Minister welcomed the summit participants, thanked them for the invitation, and emphasized that he considers such events important in terms of shaping public attitude and perception towards technologies. "Both in the world and in Armenia today, it is a phase of forming an attitude towards technologies, and on the way to increasing the utility coefficient of technologies, it is very important to form the right perception and attitude towards technologies among the public and to make their useful coefficient accessible to people."

According to Nikol Pashinyan, the phenomenon of technology, as an essence and content, is a constant process accompanying civilization, and the development of technologies is also a continuous process. In this context, the Prime Minister emphasized: "Technologies have been, are, and will continue to be a means of improving human life and raising the degree of well-being, and they have always been so, although we now say that technologies bring challenges and threats, but this phenomenon is also not new. All technologies have brought threats and challenges with them."

Highlighting the importance of the expressed idea that artificial intelligence and relations with technologies in general predetermine the future of the Republic of Armenia, the Prime Minister added that this assertion sounds equally true in all countries of the world. "I think it is obvious that our Government's policy is to support the development of technologies and the technological sector. I recently had the opportunity, and today I consider it very appropriate to clarify what are the tools with which the Government supports and has a strategic perception in terms of supporting the development of technologies. I can mention the first three steps by which we imagine we should support the development of the technological sector. The first of them is education, the second is education, and the third is education. Listing the next steps, I can mention infrastructure, good regulations, good policies. But a question arises, what is needed to do and what is needed to have to develop and have good infrastructure, regulations, and policies. I think the answer here is the same. Three things are necessary: education, education, and again, education.

From this, a question arises: and what is necessary to have a good educational system? For a good educational system, the same thing is necessary: good policies, infrastructure, and regulations. I hope it is also clear now what, from our point of view, is needed to have good policies, infrastructure, and regulations in the educational sector. And here too, our answer is the following: First, education; second, education; and third, education," said the Prime Minister, adding that they came to this conclusion from their practical experience.

According to Nikol Pashinyan, there is, of course, a political slogan and a political perception in this, but this political slogan, perception, and strategy for us is a recording of knowledge acquired as a result of dealing with life, of experience. "Of course, in such cases, many say and try to add or ask a question, as if we forgot another important thing, and the talk is about money. Of course, money is very important, but I want us to address the question again. And what is needed to have money? The Government also has three answers to this question: First, education; second, education; third, education. Of course, I am not against it, maybe there were times when this question could be answered with another three answers, for example: oil, gas, gold. But now, even the question of having or not having money, having or not having a job, having or not having well-being, in our perception, has three answers: first, education; second, education; third, education. In general, when there is a lot of talk about competitiveness in the labor market and well-being, I am sure you have noticed that we give the same answer to all these questions," said Nikol Pashinyan.

In this context, the Prime Minister emphasized the contribution of the technological sector and noted that it is receiving a new manifestation in the field of general education. "I am convinced that this is the right path, which will ensure the three main preconditions necessary for the development, security, well-being, and perpetuity of our state: first, education; second, education; third, education," Nikol Pashinyan concluded his speech.

The special guest at the summit was Vincent Roche, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Analog Devices Inc., who is the laureate of the RA State Prize for Global Contribution in the Field of High Technologies for 2025. The summit also hosted: Noubar Afeyan, founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, co-founder and chairman of the board of Moderna; Andre Andonian, President of the Asia-Pacific region and strategic advisor of the biotechnology company Flagship Pioneering; Hovhannes Avoyan, founder and CEO of Picsart; Adam Kablanian, founder of Alexandrea Winery; Ivan Lesic, Technical Director of Nokia's mobile networks direction in Central and Southern Europe; Teodora Preda, advisor at Plug & Play Tech Center; Vahe Andonyans, founder and CEO of Cognaize; and Hakob Hakobyan, founder of Seaside Startup Summit.