YEREVAN, April 6. /ARKA/. “Digital economy changes our work and the way we do business, but the pattern and institutional development have not changed. We follow the rapid pace of technological development with hope and caution,” the head of Armenia’s Central Bank Martin Galstyan said April 5 when speaking at the Doing Digital forum.
Galstyan expressed hope that rapid technological breakthroughs will allow Armenian society to become more efficient and prosperous. At the same time, he stressed that there is a risk that such development could deprive people of jobs and control over the world at large.
“The future is fraught with hyper-control over people. It could lead to a lack of proper capability checks and mechanical decision-making. If not properly controlled and managed, it will lead to major distributional problems: only certain groups will be able to benefit from technological progress, the technological divide will increase, more people will fall behind progress, markets will not be able to overcome this problem,” he warned.
The head of the Central Bank stressed that the world of the future will be even more demanding, and the rapid development of the digital economy and the spread of information is another area where there are challenges.
In this context, he noted that the main function of the Central Bank is to ensure financial stability. According to him, the bank’s focus amid rapid change is on cooperation with the private sector, the distribution of balanced risks by them and the state; creation of infrastructures, which would enable companies to be more efficient; since business models in today’s world are data-driven, therefore, there must be certainty of equal access in consumer systems.
“We are investing in our cybersecurity capabilities, systems and processes. We have also initiated an assessment of the state of our payment infrastructures. Our goal going forward is to strengthen our systems and make them more stable, resilient and integrated,” he said. -0-
