YEREVAN, APRIL 4, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s delegation led by minister of foreign affairs Zohrab Mnatsakanyan on April 3 met with Ethiopia’s minister of innovation and technology Getahun Mekuria and the ministry representatives in Addis Ababa, the Armenian MFA told Armenpress.

The Armenian and Ethiopian ministers exchanged views on the cooperation prospects between the two countries in the field of innovation and IT.

“We arrived in Ethiopia with a very clear agenda – to expand and strengthen the ties between our two nations who know each other very well and have very firm historical ties. And we believe that we can build very firm relations between our two countries and peoples based on this deep-rooted friendship. You mentioned high technologies as a main and key impetus for economic development: we also fully share this vision in our country’s development agenda and believe that currently the smart development serves as a base for firm and sustainable development”, the Armenian FM said.

The officials also touched upon the experience used in Armenia in creative education and digital agenda and the achievements recorded in person of the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies, Armath Engineering Laboratories and the Armenian National Engineering Laboratories (ANEL), highlighted the necessity to launch joint programs for exchange of experience in these spheres.

Zohrab Mnatsakanyan stated that the inclusion of the IT representatives in the Armenian delegation enables to exchange views over the cooperation prospects and opportunities with the Ethiopian companies in IT, creative education and e-governance.

He also introduced the preparation works for the 23th World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) which will take place in Armenia in October 2019, expressing hope that the Ethiopian side will participate in the event.

Thereafter, the Armenian delegation members – business development leader at the Enterprise Incubator Foundation Amalya Yeghoyan, representative of the Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises and founder of Istigate Vahagn Poghosyan and IUnetworks company’s business development leader Levon Babayan, delivered reports during the meeting.

On the sidelines of the meeting, the Enterprise Incubator Foundation signed a memorandum with the Computer Science department of the Addis Ababa University.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan