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Armenian apricot export hits record

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Apricot ExportYEREVAN. – Export of apricots from Armenia in 2017 hit a seven-year record, deputy agriculture minister Robert Makaryan said.

Over 26 tons of apricots have been exported since the beginning of summer, he told reporters on Wednesday. Although the apricot season is over, export continues thanks to the reserves in refrigerators.

The official added that the export of strawberries has doubled reaching 2.5 thousand tons.

Since the beginning of this year, export of fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables has reached 65 thousand tons with Russia being the main market for the Armenian export.

Growth of Armenian information technology sector reaches record high

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ArmenianThe growth of the Armenian information technology sector – which employs thousands of engineers – accelerated to 38.2%, according to government data.

The technology industry had already grown by more than 20% per year over the past decade, making it the fastest growing Armenian sector. According to government estimates, the country’s 500 information technology companies, mostly small and medium-sized enterprises, have earned more than $ 550 million in combined revenues in 2015.

The sector is dominated by Armenian branches of US giants like Synopsys, National Instruments, Mentor Graphics and VMware. But its steady expansion is increasingly being carried out by local Armenian firms.

The most successful of these startups is PicsArt, one of the most important photo retouching and photo sharing applications in the world. The company now has more than 350 employees in Armenia and has 90 million active monthly users worldwide.

Another smaller startup, attracted at the beginning of the year $ 5 million, from two US investment funds. The company, called Teamable develops software used by companies to hire skilled workers. Like PicsArt, Teamable has offices not only in Yerevan but also in San Francisco.

Another Armenian firm, SoloLearn, this month won the Grand Prize for Facebook’s “App of the Year” event, which attracted 900 applications from 87 countries. SoloLearn offers a free online application for people interested in learning computer programming.

Karen Vartanian, President of the Armenian Union of Information Technology Enterprises, highlighted the growing importance of these startups. “Our local products are emerging more and more and are proving to be international carriers,” he said.

Vahan Shakarian, executive director of Yerevan’s Technology and Science Dynamics, which manufactures smartphones and tablets, said the industry has grown rapidly as it is export-oriented. He also warned: “Booms are possible in economics. The main thing is to stay at the same level at the end of the boom. It’s a real challenge. “

For Vartanian, the main challenge is the lack of qualified computer personnel in Armenia. “Our growth is now being delayed by a severe shortage of personnel,” he added. “The education system is in tatters”.

Industry leaders have long complained about the insufficient professional level of many computer graduates from Armenian universities. According to their estimates, there are now between 2,000 and 4,000 vacancies in the sector, which employs about 15,000 people.

Successive governments have committed themselves to tackling this problem. Vartanian stressed, however, that there is still no “comprehensive and strategic cooperation” between authorities and IT companies.

In January, Prime Minister Karen Karapetian met with a team of government officials and sector officials who proposed a major reform of engineering education in Armenia. One of the leaders said that only half of the 1,300 students in information technology graduates from Armenian universities each year are sufficiently qualified to work in the sector without further training.

Monday, July 24, 2017,
Claire © armenews.com

Armenia’s exports hit record high in 2016 – minister

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Armenia’s exports have set a record this year, Armenia’s Minister of Economic Development and Investments Suren Karayan told reporters on Wednesday.

“We’ll record a year-on-year increase of exports reaching 21%. And we forecast a 25% increase during the last four-month period,” the minister said.

On the other hand, Mr Karayan does not consider the figures satisfactory.

“To ensure steady economic growth we believe that we must, in the mid-term, invest all our potential to ensure the share of exports in Armenia’s GDP to be at least 40-50 percent,” the minister said.

He points out controversial high-level centralization of export in terms of both markets and products, and the ministry will try to diversify exports.

“The increase was due to Armenia products. We have recorded a 25% increase in exports over the last three months – several times as much as last year,” Mr Karayan said.

Armenia’s exports to the European Union (EU) have increased as well and work is in progress to promote exports to the EU, which is one of the major steps.

Turkey: Armenian stone record unearthed in Eastern Anatolia, dates its history back to 165 years,

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Archaeological excavations in Elazig, a city in Eastern Anatolia (historical Armenian name: Kharberd), have led to the discovery of a stone record with Armenian inscriptions.
The relic, measuring 80’ x 53’,   was unearthed in the vicinities of the Armenian church St Karapet, a 19th century construction. It dates its history back to 165 years, Ensonhaber.com reports.

According to the website, the stone record has been handed over to the city’s history museum.

Record 33 Armenians to participate in 2016 Summer Olympics

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summer-olymicsSwimmers Vahan Mkhitaryan and Monika Vasilyan joined the 31 Armenian athletes who have qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

For the first time in the history of independent Armenia, the country will have 33 participants in one of the most anticipated sports events.

The 2016 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXXI Olympiad, and commonly known as Rio 2016, is a major international multi-sport event in the tradition of the Olympic Games due to take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016.

Read also:Armenia’s boxing team has five Olympians for first time ever

Erdogan’s Son Blocks Access to Websites Detailing His Criminal Connections

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1035105629In complying with a request made by the Turkish president’s son, Ankara blocked websites detailing alleged criminal connections between him and a businessman recently arrested in the United States.

Turkey blocked 21 news websites detailing the US criminal case related to Bilal Erdogan, son of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

On March 22, Turkish national Reza Zarrab was arrested in the United States for fraud, money laundering and evading sanctions against Iran. Zarrab was previously implicated in a 2013 Turkish corruption scandal, which was tied to Bilal Erdogan, who was tied to the indictment though a connected businessman, Sıtkı Ayan.

The websites, including those of the newspapers Haberdar and Cumhuriyet were blocked, but no warning or court order was given prior to the block. It was only after the websites were blocked that officials sent notes to Haberdar.

Along with information about the connections between Bilal Edogan and the criminal case, newspapers cited fragments of a leaked wiretaps of a conversation between Bilal and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, made during the 2013 anti-corruption operation.

Source: sputniknews.com

Saudi Arabia breaks 20-year execution record: Amnesty International

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61d5acb5-c704-4868-8d60-9bff6f5153c9At least 151 people have been executed in Saudi Arabia so far this year, the highest figure in the last 20 years, Amnesty International says.

In a Monday statement, the rights group said Saudi authorities, on average, have put to death one person every other day in 2015.

The number shows a dramatic 68-percent rise in comparison with 90 executions carried out over the whole of the last year.

The last time Riyadh executed over 150 people in a single year was in 1995, when 192 executions were recorded, according to the statement.

“The Saudi Arabian authorities appear intent on continuing a bloody execution spree which has seen at least 151 people put to death so far this year,” said James Lynch, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa Program.

The statement also noted that nearly half of this year’s executions were for offenses that do not meet the threshold of “most serious crimes” for which the death penalty can be given under international human rights law.

“Under international human rights standards, most serious crimes are crimes that involve intentional killing,” it said.

Under the Saudi law, apostasy, armed robbery, drug trafficking, rape and murder carry the death penalty. Most Saudi executions are carried out by beheading with a sword.

According to Amnesty, 71 foreign nationals were among those executed in Saudi Arabia this year.

“Foreign nationals, mostly migrant workers from developing countries, are particularly vulnerable as they typically lack knowledge of Arabic and are denied adequate translation during their trials,” the UK-based human rights group said.

Riyadh has been under fire for having one of the world’s highest execution rates.

Earlier this year, Amnesty said in a report that court proceedings in Saudi Arabia “fall far short” of global norms of fairness.