I am one of the signatories for The FUTURE ARMENIAN initiative. I live and work in US. I have spent more than 50% of my life in US after moving at the age of 20. I think the 15 goals are a good starting point, but most importantly we need to think of the root causes that led us to where we are today and try to address them.
My view of things that have to be done to reach the 15 goals are:
Revive our education system starting from kindergarten. Work towards making sure the teachers and professors are the highest qualified and best paid jobs in Armenia
To stop and reverse the emigration, ensure basic requirements for life in Armenia are met:
Affordable and high quality Healthcare and Education system
Promise and fulfilment of dignified retirement
Safe military service through technology assistance and professionalism
Help diaspora to reintegrate seamlessly through remote connection then gradual linking and eventual repatriation.
My view of how this could be done is primarily through some serious government policies and investment projects including:
Create technology incubators or tax free economic zones (Digital Health and Biotechnology, Renewable Energy, High Tech etc) that would attract a lot of diaspora and foreigners professionals as well as capital.
Ensure the professionals from above are tightly engaged in education systems in Armenia
Use the outcome of the above activities to strengthen education and safety systems of Armenia
Invest the resulting outcome and value of the above back into economy and education to deepen the process.
These points can be broken down into further details and technicalities.
Grigor B., USA
Signatory
Everyone from the Diaspora and Armenia should become the PR ambassador of Armenia to the world.
Convention Participant
Ծնելիության թվի նվազումը և արտագաղթի հիմնական պատճառները կապված է անվտանգային հարցերի, անարդարության մթնոլորտի և սոցիալական վատ վիճակի հետ։
Համաժողովի մասնակից
Սփյուռքի զավակի համար Հայաստանը նորոգվելու տեղ է։ Սփյուռքը սնվում է հայրենիքից, որքան էլ որ հիմա այն նվաստացած ու խեղճացած լինի։
Համաժողովի մասնակից
There can be unity of the Armenian nation only around the issue of security. This is the point around which Armenians can unite.
Convention Participant
An Armenian is a person with a value system. When he actively participates in certain processes to achieve his goals, then he is already a political person, a committed person. An Armenian is a person who should be able to benefit those around him, regardless of whether there are Armenians around him or not.
Convention Participant
I am a Diaspora Armenian born and raised in California, the daughter of genocide survivors, a physician and biotech expert who has volunteered in Armenia for multiple years in health-related areas.My comments come from the perspective of someone who has tried to be helpful, but who encountered multiple barriers.My suggestions below are cross-cutting and address multiple goals.1)Create a Diaspora-Armenia Innovation and Business Park/Centera.Such an entity would not only attract many more diaspora Armenians to open businesses in Armenia, but it would also create jobs and potentially an economic boom for the country. Jobs would be needed to support all the activities noted below, to support the new businesses and to support the increased number of people engaged in business activities (down-stream impact on restaurants, stores, services etc)b.This would be both a physical brick and mortar office park and a virtual office park whose mission is to make it easy to start a business and that overcomes well-known barriers (corruption, complicated laws and regulations, socio-cultural issues, and so forth). Locations would be in Yerevan and ideally one in each Marz.c.Provide business support services and education to diaspora Armenians, essentially create a business start-up tool-kitd.Provide human resources services to help with hiring and employee management.e.Provide practical educational services such as language classes (Eastern Armenian, Western Armenian, Russian, English, French), legal requirements and responsibilities in Armenia, how to set up vendor and contractor contracts in Armenia, socio-political topics, market research topics and so forth. Essentially anything that a diaspora businessperson would need to know to successfully open and manage a business in Armenia.f.Access to trustworthy, honest, high quality business support service providers that are fully vetted (e.g. attorneys, accountants, IT experts) g.Training programs for Armenia citizens to give them the skills needed by the new businesses (this could be a separate entity that contracts with the Innovation and Business Park/Centerh.Access to a variety of physical office spaces that can be rented or purchased.i.Access to executive apartments (long term and short-term rentals) that meet western standards of quality.j.Provide security solutions to businesses to prevent damage and theft (physical and digital).k.Liaison to government authorities to ensure government is able to address diaspora business people’s needs (e.g. 2)Develop in-country Armenia expertise in Eurasia Economic Union capabilitiesa.Given that as of this month all pharmaceutical and biotech approvals must now go through the EAEU and which gives any product approved in one country full reciprocity/approval in all EAEU countries, there is an opportunity for Armenia to be a preferred country in which companies conduct business to gain product registration.
b.Create businesses that provide pharma and biotech companies with the services needed to complete their product registration applications and to maintain their approvals/registrations. Become a one stop shop for these companies. Services would include legal and regulatory affairs experts, writers, translators (all documents must be in Russian), IT support and so forth.c.This could create many well-paying jobs for Armenians.d.This could establish Armenia as the “go to” country for businesses wishing to expand to EAEU countries. Given that Armenia is the most internationally facing of the EAEU countries, this is a logical role for Armenia. e.This will make Armenia indispensable to the EAEU success by attracting more businesses to the EAEU.f.Once this is accomplished for pharma/biotech, the same concept can be applied to other areas.3)Create a Diaspora-Armenia Healthcare Education and Capabilities Institutea.Improvement in the quality of healthcare in Armenia is critical to attracting people to emigrate and to attracting international businesses to open offices in Armenia. No one wants to be in a country for extended periods of time unless there is high quality medical care.b.There is a glut of doctors in Armenia but very few are well trained. On the other hand,there is shortage of nurses and cultural disparagement of the nursing profession (because they compete with doctors). c.The Institute could work to fix this long-term problem and shift the healthcare culture to one of high quality, high standards, accountability and collaboration across specialties and professions.d.This would include mentoring programs with top medical experts throughout the world, exchange programs, continuingmedical education programs and so forth.e.This would include working with the Republic of Armenia government to update regulations and laws to support a system that can provide high quality medical care and that can rout out corruption.f.This would include working closely with existing educational institutions in Armenia (YSMU, AUA, etc).g.Become an avenue for Armenia healthcare professionals to gain access to technical training, information, tech support.h.To become a think tank to problem-solve Armenia’s many healthcare challenges.4)Create a Diaspora-Armenia International Affairs Institutea.Similar in concept to #3 above (Healthcare) except for International and Foreign Affairsb.This would haveavery strong strategic component that included techniques for anticipating response options for different scenarios and game-out thesescenarios.c.Couldbe an avenue for collaboration with other international affairs think tanks of global acclaim.d.A means by which to set a higher standard and higher bar for Armenian foreign affairs which will becritical to survival of theRepublic of Armenia.e.A conduit to creating relationships with other countries that will enablethose countries to be motivated to support a strong and independent and flourishing Armenia.5)Develop a Diaspora-Armenia Philanthropy Societya.Create an NGO that supports NGOs.b.One thing that was clear during the 44-day War was that the ability of the government to provide humanitarian services or even to request humanitarian assistance or to know
which humanitarian organization were available to help completely collapsed in part because there was a lack of management of NGOs. This cannot happen again.c.There is also no strategic or operational coordination of NGOs.d.Armenia and NGOs working to help the people of Armenia would benefit from establishment of such a society.e.The Republic of Armenia would need to “bless” such an endeavor and agree to work and cooperate with this endeavor.f.Similar in concept to #1 above (diaspora business park/center); in fact,some functions could be shared between #1 and #5 (e.g. educational and training services)g.NGOs play a critical role in Armenia and should be part of any emergency response strategy.
Susan J., Armenia
Signatory
I am sure biotechnology has been considered as one of the prospective directions for building the future in Armenia. I hope it would be possible to create a group that could connect scientists working in different universities and companies with scientists in Armenia to discuss what kind of help is needed and what can be built together.
Here is what I could bring to table:
Part of my job is to develop monoclonal antibodies for research and diagnostic purposes in medicine. I could help establish a similar laboratory that could serve the local needs, to start with.
Maybe some of the companies, producing commercial antibodies would choose to open an R&D and manufacturing laboratory in Armenia, if we have well trained personnel.
This might seem to be a very small-scale endeavor, but it will boost the research and clinical science.
Another suggestion is to create a group that would help connect local science to business. The potential of students in Armenia and abroad could be utilized. I have an idea of a project:
The copper mining is one of the major components of our industry. New, more eco-friendly methods of precipitating copper from ore are being utilized worldwide. Bioleaching is one of them; it is essentially using bacteria to precipitate copper (or other metals) from low metal containing ore. Usually, the companies patent the consortium of bacteria.
Scientists from ArmBiotechnology in Yerevan (please see the reference below) have isolated a consortium of bacteria from ore in Kapan that can efficiently be used for this purpose. We could use student engineers to create bioreactors for mining copper from leftover ore by bioleaching, thus employing local people and cleaning the environment.
Susanna B., USA/Armenia
Signatory
We must create a mechanism by which the peoples who experienced Genocide can receive compensation for the losses they suffered.
Convention Participant
It is necessary to clearly understand what the recognition of the Armenian Genocide gives us, Armenians.
Convention Participant
Ո՞վ է հայը։ Շատ լայն պիտի նայենք այդ հարցի պատասխանին։ Ով իրեն հայ է համարում, մենք պետք է ընդունենք, որ նա հայ է։ Օրինակ՝ ընտանիքի մի մասը հայ է կամ հատուկ հետաքրքրություն ունեն հայկականի հանդեպ, ուրեմն՝ հայ են։
Համաժողովի մասնակից
I think that the Diaspora should play an active role in the internal life of Armenia, but our statesmen are not friendly and make even starting a business here a big headache.