A working discussion was held under the leadership of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on the bills “On Cybersecurity”, “On Public Information” and “On the State Population Register”.

The need for legislative regulation of the above-mentioned sectors, their scope, mechanisms, impact and expected results were presented within the framework of the meeting.

Minister of High-Tech Industry Mkhitar Hayrapetyan presented the bill “On Cybersecurity”, noting that the need to regulate the sector stems from the need to address public governance risk, economic damage, operational disruption, and loss of trust. It was emphasized that the adoption and implementation of the law will significantly improve Armenia’s cyber resilience level through the following five pillars: legal, technical, organizational, capabilities and cooperation. Details were presented on the scope and impact of the proposed regulation. It was presented that the bill is based on the principle of providing citizen-centered services. The policy and regulatory framework extends to vital services and critical infrastructure.

Next, Nerses Yeritsyan, Director of the Information Systems Agency, presented the bill "On Public Information", emphasizing that the goal of the regulation is a policy based on a unified digital architecture, within the framework of which the public and each person will be provided with effective and high-quality services in a digital secure environment or through the implementation of an open information policy, and public control will be exercised over the responsibilities of state and local self-government bodies. Reference was made to the formation of the state information system. It was noted that it will include its management system, unified and interoperability platforms for services, databases and supporting systems.

Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Armen Ghazaryan presented details on the bill “On the State Population Register”, noting that the main goal of the legislative project is to form a unified database of data on citizens of the Republic of Armenia and those with the right to reside in the Republic of Armenia, to form a complete, reliable and only true source of verification of the legal identity and identification of a person, to provide citizens, state and local government bodies, as well as the private sector with accurate, high-quality and precise personal data. For this purpose, the following solution is proposed: to form a unified source of true information about a person, including the full cycle of a person’s vital events.

After the presentation of the bills, a discussion was held, the participants of the meeting addressed the main provisions of the bills, presented their observations and recommendations. As a result of the extensive, earnest discussion, the issues raised around various points of the bills were clarified.

The Prime Minister expressed gratitude for the productive discussion and instructed to include the proposed solutions in the bills.