Since June 2000, Alexius has provided technical assistance in the life cycle of developing the ICT Sector in the Republic of Armenia. The first phase of support came in the form of a comprehensive ICT Sector Assessment, which led to the preparation of an ICT Master Strategy. This assessment was framed across five pillars: pipes, people, policies, public and private sectors. With each pillar, we considered the existing ICT infrastructure and environment to determine the starting point for recommendations. In addition to looking at pre-existing conditions, Alexius considers the role that citizens, the public sector, and private enterprise will adopt throughout the strategy's implementation. From this diagnostic assessment, a list of twenty recommendations to focus on was developed, providing a context for the sector and the entire country. USAID and other members of the development community along with government agencies and the private sector leveraged these recommendations to take immediate action, contextualizing the assessment towards a National ICT Strategy.
At this point USAID and the World Bank determined there were sufficient outputs from the assessment activity to develop an ICT Master Strategy, assigning Alexius as the portfolio manager for USAID sponsored support. The underlying thesis of the strategy was to leverage ICTs and the growth of an ICT private sector as catalysts for a sustainable and robust policy of economic growth and development. As directed actions from the strategy formulation were formation institutional structures, today the IT Tech Council, chaired by the Prime Minister, and the IT Development Secretariat (ITDSC) support and track the execution of the Master Strategy and are responsible for the agenda setting and logistical tracking.
Other activities that came out of the strategy were the formation of an IT Incubator, the reallignment of the University curriculum and the establishment of an academic consortium, along with the integration of sector associations, and business incubation.
After the first 18 months of execution of the strategy, Alexius was also responsible for updating and establishing operational Working Groups within the ITDSC that were resonsible for developing policy positions for modifications in the legal/regulatory framework as well as the tracking and execution of specific projects.
