Minister Robert Khachatryan visited the UNDP’s SDG Innovation Center

On July 28, RA Minister of High-Tech Industry Robert Khachatryan and First Deputy Minister Gevorg Mantashyan visited the Armenia National SDG Innovation Lab of the United Nations Development Program and had a meeting with the management staff of the center.

The meeting was attended by UNDP Resident Representative Natia Natsvlishvili, Head of UNDP Innovation and SDG Financing Portfolio and SDG Center Tigran Tshorokhyan and employees of the SDG Center.

During the meeting, Tigran Tshorokhyan presented the programs implemented within the main functions of the center: data science, behavioral science, design thinking and digitization.

RA Minister of High-Tech Industry Robert Khachatryan highlighted the center’s activities in terms of innovative projects, digitalization, data science, ongoing research and proposed solutions that support the RA government in developing fact-based policy.

UNDP Resident Representative Natia Natsvlishvili reaffirmed her readiness to support the digitalization and digital transformation program of Armenia, emphasizing the need to expand cooperation in these areas.

Emphasizing the importance of digitalization in Armenia within the framework of the bilateral cooperation agenda, the parties exchanged thoughts on the existing problems in the field of digitalization and digital transformation, current and future programs and solutions being implemented in this direction.

In particular, cooperation in the field of digitalization, participation of the center in the development of a national open data policy and capacity building in the public sector were emphasized by both sides.

The SDG Innovation Center is a joint initiative of the UN and the Government of the Republic of Armenia aimed at promoting innovation in the public sector. For six years of work, the Center has turned global signals and trends into knowledge and facts to support government institutions in solving urgent and pressing problems in a rapidly changing world.

As a result, an agreement was reached to organize meetings in order to make cooperation more substantive.