World Congress on Innovation and Technology (WCIT-2024) was held in Yerevan on October 4-6. The event has become an important international platform for discussing innovations – artificial intelligence in the first place, as the most actively developing industry.
Armenia is hosting the event for the second time in five years, which underscores the country’s aspiration to become a major regional technological center. This, in particular, was stated by Mkhitar Hayrapetyan, Minister for the High-Tech Industry of Armenia, on the first day of the congress.
The Congress kicked off on October 4th with the opening of the DigiTec 2024 technology exhibition, which brought together leading Armenian and international technology companies and startups under the slogan “The Power of Reason: AI beyond borders, but within the framework of ethics”.
President of GDA Group Yaroslav Bogdanov noted that in recent years the World Congress on Innovation and Technology has shifted its focus to the East and is increasingly being held in Asian countries – India, Thailand, Malaysia, and now in Armenia.
“In recent years, the emergence and active development of new centers of innovation and technology has been observed. The East and the countries of the Global South are becoming not only places for the development of new competitive technologies, but also important hubs for logistics. The shift in focus to the East reflects changes in the global economy. Companies are increasingly looking for opportunities to optimize production processes and reduce costs, leading to a growing interest in Eastern markets. WCIT-level events give Eastern countries an opportunity to demonstrate their potential as research and development centers,” said Yaroslav Bogdanov.
The Congress welcomed two thousand guests and speakers from all over the world. Among them were recognized visionaries of the digital industry – Arvid Bell, Esther Wojcicki, Tak Lo, Rodrigo Messi, Ibrahim Gedeon and others. At WCIT-2024, much attention was paid to the technological component of the entire innovation industry. In particular, the production of semiconductors that provide high speed information processing and energy efficiency, which is critical in today’s digital world, was actively discussed.
Artificial intelligence, as the most promising area of innovation today, received a boost to its development thanks to a sharp breakthrough in semiconductor manufacturing in the mid-2010s. Yervand Zoryan, chief architect and researcher of Synopsys, spoke about it on the sidelines of the congress, emphasizing that AI is now being introduced into the chip manufacturing process, which proves how closely interconnected technology and science are, which are the basis of modern progress.
“WCIT-2024 held in Armenia had a unique atmosphere, where the participants were given the opportunity to discuss the digital future of mankind on a global scale, but with immersion in the details of the processes taking place in the high-tech industry. This approach gives a more accurate understanding of the direction in which the development of information and communication technologies is moving today. And the choice of venue signals to investors that the high tech market is expanding its geography,” said Yaroslav Bogdanov.
