October 21, 2019 - 16:27 AMT
President: Armenia should be part of China's tech progress

China is constantly developing new technologies, and Armenia should be a part of that process, President Armen Sarkissian has said in an interview with Phoenix TV.

"The world is changing, and China is one of the reasons that the world is changing, because it is the accelerator of new technology worldwide, because it has a huge economy, because if we look at global risks, probably one of the major ones would be the slow-down of the Chinese economy. This is how important Chinese economy has become," Sarkissian said.

"The physical belt is being built, and somehow Armenia should become one of the branches of this belt," the President said reminding how Armenia was once an important part of the Silk Road.

"But that's not enough.

"If China is going to develop new technologies, Armenia should be a part of that in mathematical modeling, artificial intelligence and big data management."

Armenia has signed a very deep and wide-ranging agreement with the European Union, making itself quite unique, because it is also a member of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), Sarkissian said.

"So we are the only country to have deep relations -- on paper -- with both blocs and can play as a bridge between the EU and the EAEU,” Sarkissian said.

The reporter named Qian Sun was among the journalists attending a press trip aimed at drawing international media attention to Armenia’s tech world within the 2019 edition of the Global Innovation Forum.

The trip was jointly organized by the Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology (FAST) and European Friends of Armenia (EuFoA).