USAID will provide $5 million to support Armenia and AWS cooperation to digitize services in Armenia

The US Agency for International Development will provide $5 million to support the collaboration between Amazon Web Services and the Government of Armenia, which is aimed at advancing the process of digital transformation, digital infrastructure and cloud technology development in Armenia. USAID Administrator Samantha Power announced this today during a press conference with Minister of of High-Tech Industry Mkhitar Hayrapetyan.

“We see in government leadership a dedication across the board to make that vision a reality. I would like to thank Amazon Web Services for helping Armenia realize this vision through the formal partnership signed between Amazon Web Services and the Government of Armenia in 2022 to begin  modernizing Armenia’s Government infrastructure through the work already done to better prepare Armenia’s existing digital Government systems to withstand cyber-attacks, natural disasters and other crises, digitizing a central public services in a safe and protected manner, including, as we heard, by creating an app version of public services accessible via smartphone which will make it easier and more efficient for Armenians to access those services.

This platform, I should stress, could help Armenians do things like obtaining driving licenses, procure certification for business, births, deaths or even to get an emergency financial assistance during times of hardship”, she said.

According to her, digitizing these important government services will require secure and reliable digital systems that can withstand cyber-attacks, governed by clear regulatory rules and respect people's privacy, personal data.

“The Government of Armenia will harness Amazon Web Services industry expertise to create and reform policies to bring the benefits of innovative new technologies to their citizens while also protecting privacy. Amazon Web Services data expertize will help Armenia develop ways to quickly and efficiently digitize its systems and data. And  Amazon Web Services will provide critical trading in cloud computing and cyber security that can help Armenia build data sovereignty and defend that sovereignty against any who would seek to compromise it,” she added.

In his turn, the Minister of High-tech Industry Mkhitar Hayrapetyan emphasized that as a result of this cooperation, Armenia will have new digitalized services that will be available for RA citizens on the national service delivery platform.

"We had an extremely constructive and productive meeting with our partners at Amazon Web Services. Our partners at Amazon Web Services immediately responded to the "cloud first" policy adopted by Armenia. We will certainly cooperate with our partners in the USA in this matter as well to ensure the development of capacities in the public and private sector in order to move to cloud technologies," said the minister․