On April 7, within the margins of an official visit to Rwanda, the delegation headed by Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan visited the SMART Africa Center.

Created by leaders and governments of the African countries, the SMART Africa Center, which unites 25 continents, is aimed to ensure sustainable social economic development of the continent, as well as to create an economy driven by digital agenda and innovation.

Foreign Minister Mnatsakanyan and the delegation met with Lacina Kone, Director General of the Center’s Secretariat, who presented the registered achievements in e-governance and technology, the implemented programs towards digitizing the African continent and the possibilities of implementing experience of other countries.

Zohrab Mnatsakanyan introduced Lacina Kone to the smart development agenda of the Armenian government, which focuses on creating a favorable environment to consolidate the potential in this sphere. Minister Mnatsakanyan highlighted the importance of engaging the Armenian IT industry representatives in the delegation in terms of substantive discussion on the cooperation and the possibilities and prospects of localizing the Armenian experience in the African continent.

The Head of Business Incubator Foundation (EIF) business development Amalia Eghoyan and IUnetworks CEO Levon Babayan presented Armenia's experience in the field of information technology, creative education and e-governance, underscoring the importance of initiating programs to exchange experiences with the African countries in these areas.

At the end of the meeting, Amalya Yeghoyan, Business Development Officer of the Enterprise Incubator Foundation, who was a member of the delegation headed by Minister Mnatsakanyan to Rwanda, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Smart Africa Center, which envisages the implementation of joint research and innovation projects between Armenia and Rwanda, cooperation in high technology and engineering, business partnerships.

The Foreign Minister of Armenia also presented the preparatory works of the 23rd World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) to be held in Yerevan in October.