An Economic Forum kicked off ahead of the 17th Summit of La Francophonie in Yerevan
YEREVAN—The 17th Summit of La Francophonie will kick off on Thursday, ahead of which an economic summit featuring a tri-lingual robot named Sofia, as well as the arrival of Lebanese President Michel Aoun and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ushered in the much-anticipated and discussed international gathering in Yerevan on Wednesday.
Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan greeted the Trudeau at Zvartnots International Airport where earlier on Wednesday, Lebanon’s Aoun headed his country’s official delegation. Among other world leaders expected in Armenia are French President Emanuel Macron.
The Economic Forum kicked off on Wednesday at the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies and featured Sophia, a robot developed by the Hong Kong-based company Hanson Robotics, who addressed the gathering in hopes of increasing awareness about artificial intelligence and also to highlight Armenia’s capabilities in technological advancement.
President Armen Sarkissian addressed the forum, highlighting Armenia’s potential as a business and development hub and telling businesses represented there that the climate for investment in ripe and urging them to consider Armenia as a reliable business partner.
President Armen Sarkissian at the Economic Summit
Armen Avak Avakian, the chief executive of Business Armenia, which organized the forum, presented the vision of global economic development and Armenia’s investment climate to the businessmen from around 50 countries in the world.
“Companies like Google and Apple drive the innovation these days. And it happens mainly because of potential of the immigrants. If we consider the US and China as the emigration promoters, it’s clear that the emigration itself positively affects innovation. The number of registered patents in those countries has substantially increased in recent years. Armenia too is a good example of this. As the “Nation of Innovation,â€
