Mr. Chobanyan, how would you assess the current state of IT in Armenia, taking into consideration that this sphere has been declared as a priority sphere? When describing the current state of the sphere, we must register that there is certain progress in terms of telecommunication, the business environment and services. However, it is insufficient. Systematization is poor and we can’t set information technologies aside from telecommunication. For years, the slow pace of development was highly linked to the issues existing in the sphere of telecommunication. The sphere has been declared as a priority branch of economy and we are certain that it may become the main guarantee for Armenia’s economic development and, I would say, rise. However, besides conceptual documents that already contain failed target indicators, there is apparently no clear-cut state policy. The important indicators for Armenia to interest investors is employment; the number and specific weight of those up to 35 years of age; the quantitative and qualitative indicators of university graduates; the business environment for investments; taxing privileges; connections abroad-in Armenia’s case the Internet-and the quality of aviation services; the country’s economic position and pace of global and regional development; rating in international categories for attracting foreign investments and more. I could touch upon each point one by one, but we clearly have no favorable state or real progress for any indicator. Despite several programs implemented in the past couple of years, the efforts and programs aimed at introducing an electronic society or e-government are still mainly uncontrollable, low-quality, full of expressions of corruption and inefficient. There are more than 300 ITT (Information and Telecommunication Technologies) enterprises in Armenia, but only the “elect” are able to be included in state-run projects. Despite the pompous announcements, there is practically a lack of electronic services in Armenia. As a result, there is low supply and demand for ITT and local experts and enterprises are pushed toward failure and emigration. We have to keep our country’s reputation high and develop our resources, but we are actually doing the opposite in every possible way. What were your expectations before RA President Serzh Sargsyan’s meeting with members of the UITE board and what is the real image after summing up the results of that meeting? The purpose of the meeting with the RA President was to discuss the current issues, as well as present our proposals for solutions and our willingness to participate in the solution. I always give a positive assessment of the practical and interesting discussions and am certain that the meetings will continue in the upcoming months. In the next two weeks, we envision developing and presenting the RA President with a package of our proposals for solving the mentioned issues. The most important thing is action that should be taken based on agreements reached after the meeting. With that said, what are the concrete objectives set particularly for the “Nork” Center and is “Nork” competent to solve the issues? First of all, I view our organization as an inseparable part of the ITT community and our successes and failures are linked to the current situation. In this regard, we must show our most active participation in the development of and discussions on the mentioned proposals, especially implementation. During the meeting, we also touched upon issues related to our activities, particularly the current problems with pensions and the opportunities for solving those issues. According to corresponding decisions, we no longer have control over the pension service and all of our efforts aimed at solutions were fruitless since they were either denied or remained unanswered. It turns out that a large part of the lists that we provided to the State Social Security Service for accuracy simply haven’t been used. After the latest changes made in this sphere, there is an opportunity to have a direct impact on the exploitation of the system and implementation of necessary reforms. One of our most important objectives is to regulate the pension information system and solve the current issues for which we have a clear understanding and plan.

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