KeghartNews brief, 18 May 2018. “Imagine Armenia” forum panel discussion took place in Toronto and Montreal respectively on the 9th and 12th of May, 2018. The goal of the event was to introduce Repat Armenia to the Armenian community in Canada.
Panelists from different organizations shared their experience of doing business in Armenia. The names of the organizers and panelists in Toronto may be viewed at Getting Engaged with Armenia: How and Why? and in Montreal on Facebook.
News brief, 18 May 2018. “Imagine Armenia” forum panel discussion took place in Toronto and Montreal respectively on the 9th and 12th of May, 2018. The goal of the event was to introduce Repat Armenia to the Armenian community in Canada.
Panelists from different organizations shared their experience of doing business in Armenia. The names of the organizers and panelists in Toronto may be viewed at Getting Engaged with Armenia: How and Why? and in Montreal on Facebook.
Vartan Marashlyan, the executive director of Repat Armenia Foundation, one of the organizers of the forum and a panelist provided the following statistical information:
“1) Approximately 150 people showed up in Toronto and over 250 in Montreal;
2) 88,000 people watched the Toronto event online;
3) Approximately 60% of the audience was originally from Hayastan, 90% of the audience had visited Armenia at least once and around 40% raised their hands considering potentially repatriating to Armenia;
4) Forum's goals were to give an opportunity for the audience to meet change makers who either moved to Armenia or are well connected with the Homeland through innovative business and social initiatives, to promote different ways of engagement with the Homeland including volunteering, internship, education, professional repatriation, support to impactful business and social projects.”
The above partial information list is concluded by the remark, “This is our 18th ImagineArmenia forum during the last 5 years. We had such forums in Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Buenos Aires, Amsterdam, Paris, Marseille, Brussels, London, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tbilisi, Tehran, Beirut.
Bearing in mind that Armenia is in flux and reforms are underway, opportunities to establish businesses in the homeland may take a new impetus; more importantly, if the economic and the legal environments improve then repatriation may become a reality for many who want to live in Armenia. This forum with two events in Toronto and Montreal where most Canadian Armenians are concentrated, was a welcome function in this context.
Keghart
Keghart