Remarks by President Serzh Sargsyan delivered at the presentation of the Presidential Award for Global Contribution in the Field of Information Technology

Dear Mr Fadel,

Dear Friends,

We have gathered tonight to extend congratulations and express our appreciation to a person who has made a significant contribution to the development of information technology at a young age already.

I am happy to hand the Presidential Award for Global Contribution in the Field of Information Technology to Tony Fadel, the founder of Nest Labs. He is really one of those people who are shaping our everyday life and lifestyle in this digital era.

During its millennial history, the Armenian people has always sought to master and adapt to the local medium everything progressive in the world. This award is the manifestation of our mentality, ideology and aspirations.

For over a decade now, our country has been looking for a niche in the global market of information technology in quest of new achievements. There are about 600 IT companies operating in Armenia, including many world-renowned organizations. This has helped solve the problem of employment for about 20 thousand people.

We have been experiencing an average of 20-25% growth over the past few years. It is important for us to not limit ourselves to the indicators we have. We need to dream up, think of and create new projects and implement them.

We should have thousands of IT companies and hundreds of thousands of specialists working in the field of information technology. That is why we need a dynamic system of special education, and we have a lot to do in this regard. The decades-old traditions and the youth with a strong will shall serve as a solid foundation for achieving those goals. That is my vision.

We shall have many new professionals who will bring our country to the point of changing their work and the overall climate in the country. They will break the psychological template of being a “small country” which sometimes comes to the forefront in our society.

Together with the active involvement of women and men working in this field, we are steadfastly moving towards a knowledge-based technological economy in line with our goal of building an intellectual Armenia.

Dear Colleagues,

I think Mr. Fadel’s solutions relating to iPod players or other innovations should be instructive for our specialists. He has gone through deeper roads overcoming difficulties, learning new lessons on his way to success.

Certainly, there are many major players in the IT industry. However, there are also successful professionals with innovative ideas and start-up companies set up by smaller groups.

New grant-venture financing tools are currently being introduced under the auspices of the Armenian Science and Technology Foundation - FAST - in an effort to encourage the startups. I am sure that they will be useful to our talented scientists and businessmen, and will help them to achieve the desired results. We are determined to provide new opportunities in this area in cooperation with the private sector. Information technology should be one of the driving forces behind the economy.

In this field, we have long been on the global track of competitiveness, and we are confident in our ability to compete with the leaders.

We have a lot of success stories, but the most exciting one is the recent victory of our schoolgirls from Karbi village school in Aragatsotn Marz. These and many other examples give us confidence in tomorrow’s day.

Dear Mr Fadel,

With this award, we wish to highlight the achievements of your team and yourself in the field of iPod players, iPhones, thermoregulators, safe and smart toys for children, and many more.

I hope you will be able to present your success story to our students and professionals and encourage them to reach new heights.

I can not tell how much your curiosity used to be fueled when you joined your grandfather, your father to change the wall outlets at home as a child of 3-4. However, you did not give up and eventually succeeded since you were strong with an earnest desire to live up to your new ideas even after having 80 applications rejected by 80 businessmen.

In my opinion, the first and most important lesson that your story can teach us is as follows: failures are another step forward on the way to achieving the desired goal. Failure is a new step towards success. One should draw conclusions from failures and go ahead, avoiding the previous mistakes. By the way, this approach is not unique for the field of the information technologies, but also to many other fields from politics to business and beyond.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We have been awarding this prize for the eighth time to individuals who have proposed and implemented revolutionary changes in information technology. Over the past years, we could witness the enthusiasm with which young people met and interacted with their heroes.

Our prize winners are an excellent example of how to make the world better by improving people’s lives and facilitating contacts.

On behalf of all of us, I once again felicitate Mr Fadel and thank him for his work, as his accomplishment is for the whole humanity and many of us use it.