News — NCIE

CaseKey Competition 2022

Neetrino — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 18:47:58 +0000

On November 18, 2022, our iGorts Fellows, Tatevi Aghajanyan and Lilit Beglaryan, attended the second annual CaseKey Business Case Competition at the Dilijan training and research center of the Central Bank of Armenia.

The CaseKey Competition is an entrepreneurial contest for creative and innovative students and young working professionals with a strong aspiration of uplifting Armenian businesses on the local and global levels. The teams passed coaching and training sessions about business cases and solved different situations by getting acquainted with international business strategy analysis, presentation skills, and reasoning. This competition created a non-formal educational environment based on real-life situations that require flexible thinking, quick decision-making, and interactive learning.

The President of the Central Bank of Armenia, Martin Galstyan, highlighted the importance of training based on real business problems and the willingness of the Central Bank to support similar initiatives. The participants were also welcomed by the Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy in Armenia, Chip Laitinen, and the Representative of the UNDP Armenia, Vahan Asatryan.

Over the past six months, more than 500 students, 15 speakers, 30 trainers, and 15 universities and educational institutions participated in the competition’s success. For the final day event, the teams were given the opportunity to solve the problem of publicizing the e-citizen.am platform proposed by the Electronic Government Infrastructure Implementation Agency. The SuperNova Team was announced the first-place winner of the Nation in Action and CaseKey Competition out of the seven finalist teams.

We congratulate all the participating teams and admire their power to challenge themselves and sharpen their business perspectives.

Alternative Investments in Armenia

Neetrino — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 18:22:05 +0000

On November 8 and 9, BDO in Armenia and Orion Worldwide Innovations partnered to organize a two-day international conference titled "Alternative Investments in Armenia." to which The National Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship was invited.

The conference focused on creating international business alliances and collaborating with foreign bankers, investors, and businesses. Given Armenia's financial and broad economic growth, the conference's topic was crucial for encouraging money flow into the economy to promote innovation, productivity, and institutional capital management. The alternative investments in Armenia offer the potential to enable and refuel the nation's economic expansion.

Armenia's current financial system development is saturated with private debts and bank loans, and the public markets are still evolving. Thus, other sources of alternative investments, such as Venture Capital, Corporate Venture Capital, and Private Equity, along with institutional multi-generational asset management, can play a vital role in diversifying the development of the financial ecosystem and transforming the wealth of our nation.

The event brought together policymakers, global experts, and corporations, with practical experts attending roundtable discussions to accelerate and fuel the financial sector's growth in Armenia. Our Center's iGorts 2022 Fellow, Mihrean Aroyan, who recently joined us from the US, was one of the panelists during the "CVC as a gateway to access emerging and innovative solutions for corporations" panel discussion along with the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of High Tech, David Sahakyan, The Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Armenia, Nerses Yeristayn, the CEO of Bitvore Inc., Oz Eleonora, and the Head of Tax and Legal BDO Armenia, Aharon Chilingaryan.

Orion Worldwide Innovations also sponsored the conference to the activation of the "Digital Jugha" network, which will create an opportunity to position Armenia as an investment hub in the region.

Watch the discussion through this link:

iGorts2021 Participants joined NCIE

Neetrino — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 22:29:30 +0000

On September 9, 2021, Ruzanna Grigorian from Russia and Gassia Samuelian from Lebanon joined the National Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship through the one-year iGorts 2021 program to contribute to the improvement and development of the programs of our institution. The iGorts Fellowship Program was launched in September 2020 by the Republic of Armenia’s Office of the High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs, where following the selection process, Armenian professionals from around the world are given the opportunity to serve in the Armenian Government for a duration of one year. This year’s program has 48 participants from 14 different countries currently working in 25 state institutions of the Republic of Armenia.

Arctx.co Grand Opening

Neetrino — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 17:22:34 +0000

NCIE Director Hayk Margarian and iGorts fellow Gagik Arutyunyan had the honor to attend Arctx.co’s Grand Opening of the new office on the 24th of December.

Arctx is an innovative software solutions company specialized in providing high-tech products and services to businesses all over the world. The Korean Tech company has moved its headquarter from Australia to Armenia with a staff of more than 200 people covering both Korean and Armenian nationals and plans to expand to 3 000 employees within 4 years. The board members presented the company's future plans and goals assuring that 2022 will be the year of growth and achievements.

We would like to congratulate the inspiring ArctX Community of more than 200 ambitious individuals aiming to create meaningful, long-lasting, and revolutionary digital products that connect with people.

We are happy by the dedication of the Korean investor-entrepreneur Mr. Ryan Kang and his multinational team and happy to collaborate in the future projects of the company.

Our team is sending you sincere congratulations and is wishing you all the best.

Meeting with Hayk Hovakimyan and Eduard Safaryan

Neetrino — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 17:21:30 +0000

On December 17, 2021, NCIE was pleased to host Hayk Hovakimyan, the founder of the Armenian language school Tumanyan.Online and the author of the YouTube channel Repat Riarch and Eduard Safaryan, the Deputy CEO of Freedom Finance Armenia.

Mr. Hayk moved to Armenia after the 2018 Velvet revolution to represent life in Armenia in an objective way and implement his projects. Mr. Eduard has over 10 years of experience in governmental and business projects, moved to Armenia to help open the Freedom Finance Armenia office.

We wish them both prosperity, encourage their work, and are happy to cooperate.

Visit to AUA EPIC

Neetrino — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 17:20:50 +0000

On December 16, 2021, NCIE members were invited to AUA’s on-campus incubator (EPIC) that helps entrepreneurs to advance their ventures from idea to success. EPIC Director, Mr. Michael Kouchakdjian, and the Assistant Director of EPIC, Mr. Njdeh Hovanessian, along with the Operations Manager, Miss. Anna Khachatryan represented EPIC’s ecosystem which provides entrepreneurs with a network of mentors and advisors, first-class facilities, programs, events, and collaboration space.

The American University of Armenia’s EPIC on-campus start-up incubator helps AUA students, alumni, and other entrepreneurs to advance their ventures from idea to success. With its unmatched relationships with universities and an alumni network of over 4 000 worldwide, EPIC serves as an interdisciplinary hub where ideas, people, and opportunities meet.

We’re delighted by EPIC’s achievements and excited to embark on new partnership opportunities.

Meeting with EU4 Digital Initiative’s Senior Export, Mr. Jesus Lozano

Neetrino — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 17:19:39 +0000

On October 2021, NCIE was pleased to host Mr. Jesús Lozano, the Senior Expert, EU4 Digital Initiative of the European Commission, and Arpine Dallakyan, the Innovators Program Manager.

The EU4 Digital Initiative supports the digital reform agenda in Armenia with a range of actions to promote key areas of the digital economy and society in line with EU norms and practices to improve economic growth, generate more jobs and help businesses.

NCIE team introduced the initiative of creating the new model of our Center, focused on the innovation, entrepreneurship, and digital ecosystem to promote Armenia’s economy and ecosystem building.

Mr. Lozano was interested in our projects and discussed further strengthening EU-Armenia cooperation.

3rd Roundtable for “Connecting Champions of Workforce Development” Event

Neetrino — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 17:18:31 +0000

On November 23, 2021, several representatives from NCIE attended the third roundtable discussion held by American Councils for International Education Armenia in collaboration with the American Chamber of Commerce in Armenia at the DoubleTree Hilton Hotel in Yerevan: «Connecting Champions of Workforce Development.»

The roundtable’s topic was Armenian Start-up and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem. It aimed to bring together champions from various sectors to define the opportunities and pressing needs of 21st-century workforce development.

Hayk Margarian gave a brief presentation of NCIE’s function and projects, and the Entrepreneurship Advisor, Grachia Margarian, spoke about NCIE’s Unified Multifunctional Center for Business. During the Workshop, we brainstormed existing problems and innovative solutions relating to the current Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in the regions and Yerevan. Participants shared their great ideas and recommendations, which we can implement in our Center.

The series of roundtables are part of the U.S. Embassy Yerevan-funded project: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Networking Fund. The cross-cutting goal is to ensure that Alumni of U.S. government exchanges can continue to contribute to the ever-changing needs of the workforce, entrepreneurial activity, and higher education in Armenia.

We look forward to furthering collaboration with the American Council, AmCham, and many entrepreneurs we met at the Workshop

Intensive Meetings with German Partners

Neetrino — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 17:17:25 +0000

It was our great pleasure to host Tatevik Gevorgyan, Hayk Margarian’s former iGorts 2020 colleague, and her firmly determined German colleagues, Mr. Sven Leudesdorff-Pfeifer (GLC partner) and Mr. Marek Schilke, in several intensive meetings.

Tatevik is one of the success stories of iGorts 2020, which received an offer to continue working in the Armenian Government for one additional year. Still, instead, she decided to bring German businesses to Armenia by opening her own Legal Consulting LLC.

She is very dedicated to working for the good of Armenia and our partners. Despite not speaking each other’s languages, we discussed future partnerships and new areas of cooperation for the development of both countries with beliefs of future success. We wish GLC the best for all the new ventures and look forward to future cooperation.

TedxYerevan 2021

Neetrino — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 17:15:15 +0000

On November 13, 2021, NCIE members attended the incredibly inspiring and uplifting event of TEDxYerevan with the theme “Once Upon a… Science” that unleashed the science quality storytelling and communication to explore the challenges and frontiers facing Armenian Science. It was exciting to hear the best stories of Science, innovation, and the experience of technology-savvy determined individuals who underlined the importance of Science in the future of Armenia and discussed the most provocative perspectives of science development in Armenia and its impact on our collective future. The TED-like experience was inspiring in the spirit of ideas worth spreading from very well-known Armenian scientists such as Ani Aprahamian, Lilit Nersisyan, Dr. Yervant Zorian, and others. We would like to thank the TedxYerevan team for allowing our Director Hayk Margarian to be on stage to present our center’s diverse group of professionals who repatriated from the diaspora to support the country and develop potential projects.