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The first forum entitled "Doing Digital: Discovering the Digital Future," whose founder and organizer is SPRING PR company and the co-organizer is Ameriabank, was launched Wednesday in Yerevan․
The purpose of this event is to present the latest trends and best practices of digital transformation, to position Armenia as a new digital transformation platform among the global technological and business community, contributing to the increase of the country's competitiveness.
Armine Ghazaryan, Chief People and Services Officer at Ameriabank, delivered opening remarks. She noted that digital transformation is a continuous process and it never ends. She emphasized that technology is not enough, the basis of technology are the people, and if people know the answer to the question "why?", then they will definitely find the answer to the questions "what?" and "how?"
Then Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan delivered opening remarks and noted that such events are important, at least from the Armenian government's point of view.
"I am happy to see the Doing Digital Forum being held in Armenia with such a full agenda, with the participation of renowned guests and speakers representing the digital and technological sphere. In recent years, the intensification of technology-themed events being held in our country is itself an indicator that digital transformation has become a dominant agenda in the economic and public life of Armenia.
“The digital future must become a reality with the essential role of citizens and the private sector. The state will make efforts to introduce an open and accessible data policy, to create critical infrastructure, rules of the ‘game,’ and a conducive and safe environment. This is the fundamental approach of the government in implementing digital reforms," said Mher Grigoryan.
The deputy PM emphasized that the Armenian government has approved and presented to the public the vision of the digital society and economy and the nine main targets.
"The targets stress the following principles: all people will have access to digital identification solutions and will not pay directly for them. People, entrepreneurs will provide the data to the state system on a ‘only once’ basis. Services being provided by the state will be designed around life situations. In our conviction, investments in the digitization domain will lead to the transformation of society, economy, and government. In the era of the digital economy, the key to society's progress is first of all the climate of trust, thought and innovation, which Armenia surely has the potential for,” Mher Grigoryan emphasized.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Armenia, Martin Galstyan, in his remarks, stated that the digital economy is changing our way of life, ways of doing business, and like everyone else, we follow the rapid pace of technological development.
"We hope that rapid technological breakthroughs will enable our society to be more efficient and more prosperous. And caution comes from the fact that it can take away people's jobs and the whole world from our hand. Over-supervising people can lead to the use of complex tools without proper competency checks. If all this is not properly managed, it will have dire distributional consequences because only a few will be able to make use of technological advances,” he said.
According to Martin Galstyan, the three main points worthy of attention by the Central Bank of Armenia are as follows:
- Collaboration with the private sector,
- Creating infrastructure that will enable companies and households to be more efficient,
As per to the Governor of the Central Bank, Armenia is investing in its cybersecurity capacity, both in terms of systems and processes.
"We have launched an assessment of the state of our payment infrastructure. Our goal is to further strengthen the systems. We are discussing here the issues of giving service providers a greater role and providing opportunities to face risks," he stressed.
The keynote speaker at the Doing Digital Forum is Chris Skinner, an international digital transformation and FinTech expert who is one of the most influential technology and financial markets experts and best-selling authors in the world today. Skinner is also the founder of The Finanser consultancy, and author of a number of books on financial technology and banking, including Digital Human, Digital Bank, The Future of Banking, and ValueWeb.
Skinner is a keynote speaker at leading international FinTech conferences and events, presenting his views on the latest developments in the industry and the future of digital transformation. The Doing Digital Forum provides a unique opportunity to host and listen to him in Armenia.
Within the framework of the forum, more than 15 speakers—from the Singapore University of Social Sciences, Forbes, Visa, Apricot Capital, Revytech, Hexens, Beta Financial Technologies, ICDT Global companies, as well as from the Armenian government, SPRING PR, and Ameriabank—will share—through speeches and panel discussions—their knowledge and vision as well as best practices in business and digital technology.
Speakers at the Doing Digital Forum will talk about how to use digital transformations for business growth, use new technologies to achieve competitive advantage, talk about data protection and cybersecurity risk management, and successful digital transformation initiatives. Cryptocurrencies, Metaverse, NFT, potential sources of income and risks associated with them will also be covered.
The Doing Digital Forum is for everyone interested in digital transformation, its implementation, and the development of the digital economy, including business leaders, IT professionals, startups, investors and venture capitalists, PR, marketing and sales professionals, government employees, etc.
The innovation partner of the event is Visa, the investment partner is Apricot Capital, and the information partner is NEWS.am Tech.
