Armenia conducting its maiden National Cleantech Business Ideas Competition
23.10.2014,
16:30
The National Cleantech Business Ideas Competition is being held in Armenia for the first time.
Mark Drayek, head of the UNIDO energy and climate changes management programs, said Thursday that the contest will be held also the next year with a larger number of participants.
Mark Drayek, head of the UNIDO energy and climate changes management programs, said Thursday that the contest will be held also the next year with a larger number of participants.
YEREVAN, October 23. /ARKA/. The National Cleantech Business Ideas Competition is being held in Armenia for the first time.
Mark Drayek, head of the UNIDO energy and climate changes management programs, said Thursday that the contest will be held also the next year with a larger number of participants.
The contest is being held as part of the Global Cleantech Innovation Program for SME in Armenia and is aimed at finding and encouraging Cleantech startup companies and SMEs.
Armenia is the first country in the Eastern Europe to join this UNIDO program that is financed by the Global Environment Fund.
Drayek told journalists that 22 of 64 business ideas in Armenia have been chosen for the final stage of the national contest. The jurors will select four best of these 22 and one company will be announced national winner and will travel to Silicon Valley for taking part in the Global Forum on November 12 and 13.
Winners of the national race will be named on October 24. Business models are related to renewable energy, energy saving, energy-from-waste and water economy.
Drayek said that four selected in the final round will receive $10,000 each for developing their technologies, and the national winner will receive a chance to present its business model at the Global Forum to venture funds, investors and experts.
In his words, selection criteria will be technologies’ significance, feasibility, market successfulness and development prospects.
He also said that the aim of the Global Cleantech Innovation Program for SME is to foster the clean technology usage in Armenia.
The program cooperates with the Enterprise Incubator Foundation and the National Center for SME Development in Armenia.
The program’s duration is three years. Its partners are the Armenian nature protection and economy ministries as well as energy and natural resources ministry and the agriculture ministry. --0----
