The 17th Francophonie Summit this year is being held in Yerevan. Dedicated to promoting French as an international language and supporting cultural diversity, the Francophonie was created in 1970. Armenia, this year’s unlikely host, has welcomed more than 38 representatives of French-speaking countries.
Blockchain R&D Hub’s Co-founder and CINO Arman Aleksanian was a participant at Francophonie Economic Forum 2018 that was organized within the 17th Summit of the Francophonie. DigiTec Expo was extended this year by one day thanks to the Francophonie Summit. The representatives of the forum had the opportunity to be familiarized with technological and innovative solutions of countless companies. The delegates were pleased and surprised at how wide Armenia’s perspective is. The business tour came to an end with a reception at the Presidential Residence.
The opening ceremony of Francophonie Economic Forum 2018 was the perhaps the most exciting morning of Yerevan, as the President of RA Armen Sarkissian and the Secretary General of the Francophonie Michaëlle Jean welcomed the guests to the summit. Louis Pouzin, the datagram inventor and founder of CYCLADES was a guest speaker at the forum. The Laureate of Global IT Award 2016 is also the Winner of Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.
But who needs human speakers at forums anymore, right? The guests were on the edge of their seats when Sophia the robot took the stage. The first social humanoid robot that was developed by Hanson Robotics is the first non-human with a UN title. Shocking the participants with her intelligence, Sophia was the talk of the day. She greeted the guests in 3 languages: English, French and Armenian. Although she gave her speech in English, she promised to learn “the language of Voltaire and Aznavour”.
Multiple thematic discussion sessions took place at the forum where the fourth industrial revolution, sustainability in development and perspectives and challenges of international commercial relations were talked about. Moderators included Khaled Helioui, an angel investor, Jean Pierre Ndoutoum, the director of Francophone Institute for Sustainable Development and Michel Gelenine, an international cooperation expert of Business France.
Ending the thematic sessions with a Q&A, the closing ceremony was concluded with closing remarks by RA’s PM Nikol Pashinyan: “I would like to express satisfaction with the results of your discussions which, as far as I know, have identified exciting business initiatives. I welcome the establishment of a network of Francophone ministers in the field of new technologies. I would like to thank all forum participants, all those who have authored this wonderful initiative.”