Minister of Justice participates in “Public Sector Innovation Week” event

On 30 January, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Davit Harutyunyan participated in the “Public Sector Innovation Week” event held within the framework of the "Innovation for Development" project. The meeting was organised through the joint efforts of the European Union and the UNDP/KOLBA Innovations Lab. Head of the Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus and Eastern Partnership Unit of the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations of the European Commission Vassilis Maragos, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative for the Republic of Armenia Bradley Busetto, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Government of the Republic of Armenia Vahe Jilavyan, Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Suren Krmoyan, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Armenia Davit Sahakyan and others also participated in the event.

According to Davit Harutyunyan, the Ministry of Justice is one of the leaders in electronic innovation, and this is especially attested by the introduction of the www.e-draft.am/ platform for public discussion of draft legal acts, launched last year. “Previously, it was the civil society that was very actively participating in the discussion of legislative initiatives, whereas currently, we have a huge engagement of citizens and business representatives. If we analyse, we will see a significant increase. Every day, there are approximately 3,000 people visiting the website, who actively study the legislative field,“ the Minister stated, attaching importance also to introduction of the system for online submission of applications for lump-sum childbirth allowance, creation of the e-appostille.am electronic apostille system and the e-hotline.am hotline website.

Minister Harutyunyan considered the role and the active engagement of international partners — the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme, worth mentioning in the activities carried out.

During the panel discussion on the topic of ”Startups inside the Governance System”, Deputy Minister Suren Krmoyan also emphasised the fact that the Ministry of Justice is one of the pioneers in the electronic innovation sector, considering motivated human potential of the Ministry as one of the guarantees of success with regard to this issue. In this context, Suren Krmoyan attached importance to the "Public Innovation" competition for innovative ideas announced among public servants on the initiative of the UNDP/KOLBA Innovations Lab last year, as a result of which a number of employees of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia won prizes. The ideas that they came up with — the www.e-request.am unified portal for online requests and the system for online submission of applications for lump-sum childbirth allowance — have already turned into reality.

Let us mention that the “Public Sector Innovation Week” is a series of public events, closed discussions and public campaigns during which the participants become acquainted with the innovative methods applied in the public administration system and discuss the ways in which it is possible to ensure more effective co-operation between citizens and the government.