President Armen Sarkissian participated in the session of Technology and Innovation Acting Coalition of leading countries at the Generation Equality International Forum

At the invitation of the President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron and UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, President of the Republic of Armenia Armen Sarkissian virtually participated in the Generation Equality Forum on gender equality and women’s rights held in Paris from June 30 to July 2. President Sarkissian gave a speech at the session of Technology and Innovation for Gender Equality Acting Coalition of leading countries at the Generation Equality International Forum.

In his speech, President Sarkissian particularly touched upon the opportunities of developing technology and innovation in Armenia, the programs implemented in the field of high technologies, as well as the involvement of women, noting that the number of women studying at the technology departments of universities, and engaged in IT sphere is quite significant. "We are implementing many high-tech projects. One of them, called TUMO, is an initiative in information technologies and provides the young generation with basic knowledge about programming and high technologies. There are TUMO centres not only in Armenia but also in Paris and Berlin, and other places are under consideration as well."

President Sarkissian also referred to the Presidential ATOM (Advanced Tomorrow) Initiative aimed at developing science and technology in Armenia. "The world is changing, changing abruptly and rapidly. Taking all this into account, we have initiated the ATOM program," said the President, "With this project, we are trying to bring high-quality companies in the field of artificial intelligence to Armenia to set up joint venture enterprises."

President Sarkissian also informed that this October, Armenia would host the authoritative international Summit of Minds for the third time, one of the main topics of which is also dedicated to the issues of technological development. He invited the participants of the Generation Equality Forum to take part in the Summit of Minds.

Convened under the auspices of the United Nations, the Generation Equality Forum was established upon the initiative of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), co-hosted by the Governments of France and Mexico and aims to boost cooperation between governments, international organizations and the civil society in the context of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the 25th anniversary of adopting the Beijing Declaration. In 2020, Armenia, together with Finland and Tunisia, was elected the leader of the Technology and Innovation Coalition formed within the framework of the Generation Equality Forum.

President of France Emmanuel Macron, President of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris, Prime Minister of Finland Sanna Marin, UN Secretary General António Guterres, President of the European Council Charles Michel, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, former US Secretary of State and Women's Rights Defender Hillary Clinton and others gave a speech at the Forum’s Opening Ceremony.