The Philip Morris innovation center, soon to open in Armenia, will be a novelty that’s one of a kind, while its model might find further application for foundation of scientific centers in other countries.

Manager of Corporate Affairs at Philip Morris Armenia Vahe Danielyan told that Banks.am at the engineering forum-expo in Vanadzor Technology Center on June 24.

According to him, the center will be built in the Engineering City in Bagrevand, Jrvezh, which is to start operating fully this September.

“Currently, Philip Morris centers in Switzerland and Singapore conduct all researches for the company. The center in Armenia will be our third worldwide. In March, we signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Economic Development and Investments of Armenia, which provides for foundation of innovation centers by Philip Morris along with creation of Armenian scientific centers. They will conduct deep research in various fields such as chemistry, biology, physics, mathematics, engineering, thermodynamics, etc. We selected the fields where Armenia will do critical research,” Vahe Danielyan said.

Philip Morris representative informed that R&D (Research and Development) center would be founded based on the mentioned scientific directions.

“The center will elaborate solutions, ordered by Philip Morris’s R&D centers and not only. The Armenian center will implement some of Swiss research center’s projects, as well as start working on directions, which have not yet been covered. This will take from several months to a year. Currently we have both the agreement and established cooperation between Philip Morris, Armenian public and the Armenian government, according to which Enterprise Incubator Foundation will lead the opening works of the center,” commented Manager of Corporate Affairs at Philip Morris Armenia.

Vahe Danielyan emphasized that the project budget was not yet precise, since it depended on several circumstances: number and volume of implemented projects and solved issues.