Yerevan hosts Eurasia Mobile Challenge finalists

The final round of Eurasia Mobile Challenge kicked off in Yerevan on Wednesday, bringing together 24 winning teams from eight countries.

The competition is an initiative by Make your Mark, a key element of VimpelCom's corporate responsibility.

Each team has an 11-member jury representing leading international organizations, as well as entrepreneurs  - acclaimed on both the global and the regional level - and investors and high-ranking company leaders.

After the regional finals, the three winning teams will represent Eurasia in the Mobile World Congress from 27 February until 2 March.
 

This year’s finalists were selected from among 1,000 teams, VimpelCom CEO  Mikhail Gerchuk told reporters. “This is the second year we are conducting the congress, and we see an increasing interest,” he said, adding that only 600 applicants submitted bids for the 2016 event. 

The competition is first held in individual countries and later organized on the regional level.

Gerchuk said that Kyrgyzstan’s team, which was the winner last year, had proposed the idea of e-commerce for the competition. “After the regional finals, the three winning teams will represent Eurasia at the Global Mobile Challenge, the final round of the World Mobile Congress, in Barcelona. It will bring together winning teams from across the globe. ”

The chief executive added that they are now experimenting an idea proposed by an Armenian team last year to later make it more widely accessible. “We are planning to implement the project also in other countries. You have many young active entrepreneurs in Armenia. I am hopeful that the [native] land here will help the Armenian teams to be a winner among the groups,” he added.

Andrey Pyatakhin, General Director, Beeline, told reporters that the strategy of VimpelCom and Beeline is to suppor the programs that help people to raise the quality of their life.
He considers it a great honor Armenia has been selected for the finals. 

“I believe the Armenian groups will win and go to Barcelona,” he said. 
Mr Pyatakhin noted that during the competition the participants will help young Armenian businessmen create new products. He believes that they will take interest in Armenian startups.

“The major goal of this event is to help young people gain experience in creating high-quality products,” Mr Pyatakhin said. 

Senior International Googler Debu Purkayastha pointed out a high number and quality of startups. His advice is that they focus on their teams, ideas, markets, hard work, and efficient use of funds.