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The activities of the Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises (UATE) in 2019 were distinguished by the implementation of new large-scale projects aimed at developing a competitive system of scientific and technical education, business and the military industry in Armenia.

With the support of UATE, the conferences “Evolution and Artificial Intelligence” and an International economic conference took place in Yerevan from March 29 to April 3. The conference was attended by representatives of Armenia, Russia, Iran, France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, China and the USA, scientists and experts.

A delegation of one of the leading research centres in Taiwan, National Chiao Tung University, was invited to Armenia in March. Taiwanese scientists and researchers got acquainted with the potential of Armenian agriculture, discussed programs for the joint development of smart agriculture technologies. There was also held a meeting between UATE members and businessmen and experts from Taipei. Strategic approaches to technological development, key topics of WCIT 2019 and other programs were discussed. The meeting was attended by the President of the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA), Mrs. Yvonne Chun.

UATE hosted the 6th Seminar of the Eastern Partnership Regional Network for Digital Skills in May. The two-day seminar was attended by specialists from Armenia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Latvia, representatives of government agencies and other guests.

Several different interesting events were initiated as well:

IT Intellectual Cup 2019 was held in Yerevan. The total income of 1.2 million drams were donated to Armath Engineering Laboratories.

The Bug Bounty: e-Gov hackathon was initiated by ArmSec foundation and UATE as a part of the State as a Client (e-Gov) strategy of the UATE.



DIGITEC2019

For the 15th year in a row, UATE has been organising the largest technological exhibition in the region - the DigiTec Expo 2019, which this time brought together about 100 ICT companies and tens of thousands of visitors. It is noteworthy that this time at the exhibition the consolidated pavilion of the Islamic Republic of Iran was presented, which represented 9 companies from Iran. This year was also distinguished by the active participation of the Ministry of High-Tech Industry, which brought together a number of engineering and startup companies under the auspices of its pavilion.

At the opening ceremony of the exhibition, the agreement on the exporting of Armath to the Republic of India was signed. Mr. Vijay Shah?Mr. Narayana Murthy, the co-founder of Infosys company which occupies the third place among the Forbes “World’s Best Regarded Companies” 2019, was present at the signing.

On the second day of the exhibition, the ministerial delegation of the World IT Congress (WCIT 2019) consisted of ministers from the respective sectors of Bangladesh, Iraq, Brazil, Belize, Malaysia, Bulgaria, Greece, Lithuania, Estonia and a number of other countries visited the DigiTec. They showed great interest towards the Armath project.

Mr. Karen Vardanyan, the Executive Director of the Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises, signed a memorandum with Mr. Sisey Tola Yadete, the Minister of Innovation and Technology of Ethiopia on the implementation of 51 Armath laboratories in Ethiopia. This was immediately followed by the UATE Memorandum of Understanding with Mr. Mohammad Hashim, the Afghan Minister of Telecommunications and IT, on the readiness to have a similar project in Afghanistan.

The DigiTec also hosted the management staff of the ?Mubadala? investment company and Mr. Rajiv Ramaswami, the CEO of VMWare?

https://armath.am/en/events/15/history/2019

One of the features of DigiTec 2019 was that the exhibition was sponsoring the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT 2019), which is considered one of the largest IT events in the world. Congress guests held regular visits to the exhibition.



WCIT 2019

WCIT 2019 Yerevan was a special moment for Armenia, an opportunity that focused the world's attention on the long and enduring tradition of innovation and achievement by Armenia and Armenians everywhere.

The 23 Congress hosted 1500-2000 guests from different parts of the world among whom were System Of A Down frontman Serj Tankian, co-founder of Reddit and Initialized Capital Alexis Ohanian and TV personality and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian.

There were over 6400 participants which is the record of WCIT history, 5000 spectators at the first-ever concert composed live by AI, 124 speakers from renown IT professionals to global celebrities, 38 sponsoring organizations, more than 165 articles and 6000 mentions in local and international media.



ARMATH

The network of Armath Engineering Laboratories has been doubled in 2019 and about half of the schools in Armenia and Artsakh were replenished with Armath Engineering Laboratories. With the financial support of the government, 284 new laboratories were created in Shirak, Lori and Tavush regions of Armenia, where about 15,000 children received the opportunity to get a free engineering education.



ARMATH TECHNOCAMP/2019

the Armath TechnoCamp was held in 2 rounds and hosted 400 students from all regions of Armenia including Artsakh and Javakheti. Participants of "Ari Tun" program were among the camp students. https://armath.am/en/events/8/history/2019



DIGICODE/2019

This year the 5th annual DigiCode youth programming contest had more than 300 schoolchildren-participants applied to participate in the contest. Of those, 55 schoolchildren representing all the regions of Armenia and Javakhk were selected to compete in the final round. https://armath.am/en/events/7/history/2019



ROBOTEX ARMENIA

In 2019, UATE held the Robotex Armenia International Robotics Contest, which was attended by about 40 teams from around the world, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and Ethiopia. The competition was held in Armenia for the first time. It was entitled “Smart City”. UATE became a member of Robotex International Association in July 2019. The Association consolidates over 50 countries worldwide that are engaged in the development of the robotics industry, including the United States, China, India, Greece, Estonia, Colombia and several other countries.

https://armath.am/en/events/12/history/2019



UATE also organised the 7th Business Innovation Forum (BIF 2019) in Dilijan under the title “Innovative Way of the Industrial Revolution” and 2 ICT leaders meeting forum, one was dedicated to the development of the military-industrial complex of the Republic of Armenia and the second one to the process of developing the UATE 2020-2025 strategy.



The Union also held various working meetings with representatives of the state system, signed memorandum with international partners, and received foreign delegations.

As the largest business association of over 80 IT companies in Armenia, the Union of Information Technology Enterprises (UITE) expanded its activities by including the field of advanced technologies. The Union is now called the Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises (UATE).

The UATE has carried out dozens of programs aimed at supporting Armenia’s scientific-educational, business and military-industrial fields.

The number of Armath engineering laboratories has reached to 250, and that of students – 5,300. Some of Armath students managed to establish their own startups which record positive financial progress.

The Real School program, that is operating since 2016 with the help of Instigate Training Center, opened its new branches in Vanadzor and Gyumri. A total of 119 children study in the Real School.

A total of 5,500 school-children have been involved in UATE educational programs this year.

Due to the efforts of Glendale Mayor Zareh Sinanyan and the UATE the Armenian-American Business Forum was held on 7th september in Yerevan. The forum aimed to establish new, stronger connections between the two countries and attract new investments.

DigiTec 2018 hosted 120 exhibitors and more than 80 thousand visitors and was held under the title “Towards World Congress on Information Technology”. The opening ceremony also launched the countdown to the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) 2019, scheduled to take place in Yerevan on October 6-9.

In order to ensure the Cyber Security in Armenia a MOU was signed between UATE and State Security Service during the sixth annual Business Innovation Forum.

UITE (UATE) has started the organization of the World Congress on Information Technologies 2019 /www.wcit2019.org/

UITE (UATE) has initiated the ICT educational project for retired forces "From Army to IT" (link to the website). The program has 168 graduates with Junior Developer skill level and 30% of graduates are working at top ICT companies of Armenia.

Donor: UITE (UATE)

UITE (UATE) has lunched Armath TechnoCamp is a new format summer camp for 10-13 young kids and 14-17 teenagers, which supposes to bring together the youth of the Diaspora and Armenia, to strengthen the bond between the children living both in the Republic of Armenia and in the Diaspora and their further cooperation, to serve as a wonderful platform for getting preliminary knowledge and skills in engineering.

Donor: UITE (UATE)

During the Evidenced-based Advocacy for Reform one-year project UITE (UATE) has provided free legal consultation to ICT companies and created the whistle-blowing website: www.Bizprotect.am. Thanks to the website, the Armenian ICT business community gets the chance to anonymously report any act of corruption by public authorities, as well as to discuss business laws and legal acts, other advocacy and legal issues.

Donor: EU, SMEDA, GIZ

The first "Armath" engineering labs have been established in Armenia.

Donors: RA Government, UITE (UATE) , international organizations, IT companies, private donors, charity organizations and funds

UITE (UATE) has initiated the DigiCode Applied Programming Youth Contest to encourage and develop algorithmic thinking among youth, turn them from game consumers into game makers, to identify talented teenagers and enable them to develop their creative abilities. DigiCode has also become an effective platform where schoolchildren from all the Marzes of Armenia meet each other, share knowledge and innovative ideas.

Donor: UITE (UATE)

UITE (UATE) organized first “DigiCamp” annual summer camp of innovative ideas, which provides the best platform for innovative youth to develop their ideas into business plans.

Donor: UITE (UATE)

UITE (UATE) organized first Business Innovation Forum, which became one of the most important IT business events of the year.

Donor: UITE (UATE) , RA Government, EU, GIZ

Thanks to "Livelihood Improvement through Fostered Employment (LIFE) for Persons with Disabilities" 7-month project, 15 people with disabilities have been elected to improve their knowledge to work in the ICT sector. At the end of the project 12 of them got a permanent work at Instigate Mobile CJSC.

Donor: Save the Children, USAID

UITE (UATE) has implemented the Public advocacy and PR campaign for the Copyright Draft Law adoption. As a result of a series of events organized during 6 months, it has become possible to recruit different opinions and remarks from experienced specialists, develop a new draft law "On Copyright and Related Rights" and present to the Government of Armenia.

Donor: UITE (UATE), EDMC, Government of RA

Thanks to the "Monitoring and improvement of tenders and state procurement processes in the field of technology" project, a number of problems have been uncovered in the public procurement sector of RA. In particular, a package of proposals has been submitted to the Government of Armenia, a number of recommendations have been adopted and included in the draft amendments to the RA Law on Public Procurement.

Donor: USAID/Counterpart int. Armenia

UITE (UATE) has implemented the "State policy and legal environment improvement in the field of E-commerce" 5-month project to support the e-commerce development in Armenia. Around 6 legislative amendments have been developed and as a result of the ongoing campaign, several Armenian banks obtained a Visa International E-commerce license.

Donor: USAID/Counterpart int. Armenia

UITE (UATE) organized the first annual OpenGame Contest. This global event includes contests, hackathons, trainings, meetings and discussions, lectures and so on. The objective of this championship is to develop computer and mobile games market in Armenia.

Donor: UITE (UATE)

UITE (UATE) has implemeted Custom and Tax Legislation improvements through creation of a Public-Private Partnership body.

UITE (UATE) has implemented Custom Legislation Improvement Project. As a result, IT related customs issues were examined and recommendations were submitted to the Government of RA.

Donor: USAID/MAAC

UITE (UATE) has implemented Start-up Business support program in Shirak region. A total of 6 ICT business-projects have been presented by 9 participants of the program.

Donor: UNDP

"Tax legislation improvements for computers' write-off" projects has been implemented to adopt international experience of computers' write-off, which could help to cover the lack of computers in both state bodies and schools. UITE has submitted a package of tax legislation reforms to the Government of Armenia.

Donor: USAID/CDPF

UITE (UATE) initiated the Armenian Robotics Development and Support Program - ArmRobotics. The main goal of the project is to increase the interest in Robotics and Engineering among youth.

Donor: UITE (UATE)

UITE (UATE) lunched the ICT Leaders meeting without in 2008. The main goal of this event is to provide a platform for state and private sector representatives to discuss most relevant issues in ICT field.

Donor: UITE

UITE (UATE) organized the first DigiTec Business Forum.This Forum is the only B2B Platform in Armenia for Business and Technology Dialog. The Forum takes place under the high patronage of the Prime Minister of RA

Donor: UITE (UATE), RA Government

UITE (UATE) has implemented the development of Armenian High-Tech Portal the previous UITE (UATE) website www.www.zjdgnekon.cn.

Donor: USAID, CAPS



The Intellectual Property Rights Protection Campaign has been conducted by UITE (UATE) .

Donor: USAID/CPI/CASP/CDPF

UITE (UATE) initiated and organized the first DigiTecExpo ICT/HighTech annual international exhibition.

Donor: UITE (UATE), RA Government