20.3.2007

Bulgaria on its way to an IT economy

Speaking in Brussels, Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev showed confidence about his country's future as an economy driven by achievements in ICT, R&D and education.

The 2006 European Innovation Scoreboard published on 22 February 2007, found innovation performance in Bulgaria to be "well below the EU average". It stated, however that "an exception is youth education attainment, which seems to be a significant strength in Bulgaria". The scoreboard found that "the majority of the (...) indicators (are) below the EU25 average", but went on to stress that "two indicators are particularly strong: ICT expenditures and new-to-market product sales".

The report said that, while "employment in high-tech services" was on the rise, "both medium/high-tech manufacturing employment and exports of high-tech products are stagnant". It went on to state that "while innovation & entrepreneurship improved, with an increase in ICT expenditures and with more SMEs reporting organizational innovation, business R&D and skills (life-long learning and S&E graduates) are not yet showing positive trends". As of 2005, 9.9% of Bulgarian GDP was in ICT. This is the highest percentage among the 12 countries that joined the EU since 2004.

In 2005, the Bulgarian government set up the state Agency for ICT , which coordinates promotion, public investments and the country's proactive policy for developing an ICT infrastructure for public access to electronic services. ICT has also been declared a priority in Bulgaria's educational system. All universities and a growing number of schools are equipped with ICT; the academic community is fully connected with GÉANT2 , the European Research and Educational network.
Issues:

Speaking at an event on ICT and innovation in Bulgaria organised by Microsoft in its Brussels Executive Briefing Centre on 8 March 2007, Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev talked about what he called "Bulgaria's new technological revolution", an event that he deemed of equal importance as the transition from the agricultural state to industrial production.

Stanishev stressed the particular importance that education has played in Bulgarian tradition since the country's independence from the Osman empire, for which Bulgarian-language schools were an important motor. He said that this tradition was what was at the heart of Bulgaria's high educational achievement today, with Bulgaria accounting for instance for the second-largest foreign student community in Germany; topped only by China. Stanishev went on to sketch the importance of the Bulgarian ICT sector in cold-war times (48% of all computers produced in the Comecon were made in Bulgaria).

Stanishev went on to quote some of the figures that mark Bulgaria's emerging success as an economy driven by education and ICT:
• 80% of all students have internet access;
• in schools, there is one computer for every 12 pupils;
• the e-Bulgaria index , which provides an analysis of the country’s preparedness for the information society, experienced a 30% growth between 2005 and 2006;
• 80% of ICT revenue in Bulgaria is generated from contracts with EU and US partners, and;
• Bulgaria scores #21 in the 2015 forecast of the Horasis / Going Global Ventures report on global IT outsourcing .
Stanishev outlined measures Bulgaria plans to take in order to sustain the present fast growth of its ICT sector, including:
• Supporting ICT pick-up by SMEs;
• fostering Bulgarian participation in European programmes;
• including ICT in curricula, starting from a very young age;
• further roll-out of broadband to schools, universities and research institutes;
• developing ICT infrastructure, and;
• adoption of a national information security policy.