YEREVAN, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- The 40th World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT 2019) started in Armenia's capital of Yerevan on Monday, gathering more than 2,500 participants from over 70 countries, such as world-known IT leaders, professionals, journalists and celebrities.
This year, WCIT addresses The Power of Decentralization: Promise and Peril and explore how information and communications technology is transforming people's lives for better and for worse, and its impact on profits and prosperity, safety and security, democracy and humanity, according to the organizer.
The participants will discuss a huge range of topics including artificial intelligence, virtual reality, urbanism, blockchain, climate change, education, cybersecurity and more.
Opening the congress, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stressed the importance of information technology for Armenian economy. "The export of technological products grew by 40.9%, while the export of high-tech output increased by 34.4% in the first seven months of this year," he said.
WCIT was established by the World Information Technology and Services Alliance. The congress this year will be held till Oct. 9.
