Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attended Synopsys Armenia’s 15th anniversary celebration and the State Educational Awards ceremony in the field of information technology.

The Premier personally handed the awards to 47 winners nominated in the Grand Prix, Best PhD, Best Master, Best Bachelor, Best Diaspora Armenian Students and Best Student nominations.

The Head of Government watched a performance staged by Nairi folk dance ensemble, featuring Synopsys Armenia’s employees who presented an Armenian dance style, referred to as Chochk. Foreign and Armenian executives of Synopsys spoke about the company’s 15-year activity in Armenia.

Prime Minister Pashinyan delivered congratulatory remarks, in which he stated:
“Honorable Synopsys President,
Dear Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport,
Dear Synopsys Armenia President,
Distinguished Synopsys Director,
Dear Synopsys staff members,
Dear government officials,
Dear guests,

Please accept my heartfelt congratulations and best wishes on Synopsys Armenia’s 15th anniversary. I am now congratulating not only the staff and the executives of Synopsys and Synopsys Armenia, but also all of us in the Republic of Armenia, since I believe that the involvement in our country of well-known companies, such as Synopsys, means a lot to all of us.

And, first of all, the entry of this company, perhaps, coincides, although it happened 15 years ago, but coincides with the aspirations and activities of our government. We have repeatedly talked about these aspirations: we want to see the Republic of Armenia as a country of engineering thinking, activity, a technological country, and this is very important for us.

Next, I would like to emphasize the new working culture, a new way and level of employer-employee relations. To be honest, I am not so deeply familiar with the activities of Synopsis, but as far as I managed to find out earlier as a journalist and an MP, and then as prime minister, this new culture is really important both in terms of business environment and working relationship.

Thirdly, I consider that the involvement of such companies in the technological sphere in general is extremely important in the context of our drive to form the so called a proud citizen of the Republic of Armenia, when a crucial process of forming sovereign citizens is underway in the country, and an important financial and economic basis is being shaped, when employees, unlike the old systems, are not encumbered by such unhealthy bonds as may sometimes make them give up their views, political and civil positions under the threat of loss of job.

I consider the development of the technological sphere to be very important from the point of view that when such a problem arises in such a company, there is a 100% chance that this employee, specialist will very quickly find the same job in another company and will definitely not replenish the army of the unemployed. In this regard, the activity of Synopsis Armenia is extremely important.

If memory serves me right, this company was one of the pioneers in this field in the Republic of Armenia, and I do not know how it will sound from this rostrum, but it was the formation of such companies, the formation of such specialists and such a working class that led to political changes in Armenia, and it is a fact. These people played a leadership role in the development of civil society, the development of new thinking in Armenia. Many people were personally involved in that process, at least in the collective sense, people working in this field have played a leading role and this is very important.

I want to congratulate today’s award winners and emphasize that the most important condition for progress is the formation of the public demand for knowledge, and these people are pioneers in the formation of this demand.

I have said on various occasions, and I think that in the future as well, I will have the opportunity to state that knowledge and skills should increase and expand the boundaries of the possible. Today’s event is very important for us, because we believe that those present in this hall and our esteemed laureates standing on the stage are expanding the boundaries of the possible. Expanding the borders of the possible is our biggest mission, and thus in Armenia the mission of expanding the borders of the possible should become a state mission, should become a public mission, should become a people’s mission. Now it is very important that in the eternal struggle between illiteracy and open thinking we achieve the triumph of open thinking as quickly as possible, because, by expanding the boundaries of the possible, we are expanding the borders of our country, the borders of our capabilities, the borders of the vision of the future of our people.

And a third remark: there used to be a lot of talk about what would happen to our society with foreign companies’ involvement in our country; what impact this might have on our national character, on our traditions and our image.

I think it very symbolic (I did not even know about it) that we saw a national dance on this stage, which is not often performed even at the concerts of official ensembles, and we saw it performed by Synopsis employees. This is very symbolic, since I cannot accept the attempts of opposing knowledge, skills, progress, and development to national identity. This performance is important, because if we try to look at the statistics now, we will find few companies whose employees have amateur cultural groups engaged in expanding their skills, practice, research and representing national culture and art. We will find few companies in which there are teams ready to perform on stage and possess such courage, confidence, mission and devotion to perform in front of hundreds of people in the concert hall number one an ethnic Armenian dance, which was forgotten and is now being reborn with a new spirit in a new form to reaffirm the national idea of our new future.

Let me once again congratulate all of us and express hope and confidence that intellect will triumph in our country, because it has already triumphed in our country, and its victory is irreversible. Thank you.”

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The State Educational Prize of the Republic of Armenia in the field of information technology is awarded for the 15th time. The prize is awarded annually to high-performing students and pupils who take an active part in Olympiads and competitions in the field of information technology and natural sciences, have authored scientific papers and articles, and are involved in public programs.

Synopsis launched its activities in Armenia as early as in 2004. Synopsis Armenia is engaged in research and engineering operations in the fields of automation of electronic design, design for the production and development of semiconductor intellectual property. The company employs about 850 Armenian IT specialists. It has been implementing different programs aimed at stimulating the technology sector.