e-Bulgaria Current State and Trends in Information Society Development in Bulgaria Dinka Dinkova, ARC Fund eEurope International Benchmarking Workshop Prague, 2-3 December 2003 Prague, 2-3 December 2003

Context  Progress in EU accession (2004 – expected formal end of negotiations; 2007 – expected accession)  Macroeconomic stability, instrumental role of currency board  5% projected economic growth in 2003 (yet GDP per capita still low compared to other accession co’s); IT sector grows at 12-14%  Rapid credit growth (mostly consumer credits) leads to increase in consumer good imports (incl. computers and communications equipment)  Growing FDI and domestic investments (yet foreign green field investments still low)  New investments focused on sectors with low export capacity  Exports mainly in low value-added goods and resources  25-30% informal economy; larger in the ICT sector

Context (2)  Major policies, strategies in place for ICT development (e.g. Info Society, e-Government, ICT Competitiveness, ICT in Education, etc.)  Low institutional capacity for policy implementation and horizontal coordination / cooperation; high turnover of responsible personnel; inter- institutional rivalries  Political and institutional blockage (e.g. BTC still not privatized after 3 decisions of the Supreme Administrative Court)  Not fully transparent policy and decision making process  Lack of strong political will, commitment and leadership; political apathy  Public-Private-Partnerships gaining momentum (e.g. e-Government Strategy, ICT strategy)  Strong third sector and int’l donor community involvement but overall short-term thinking in society

Context (3)  Liberalization of telecom market (2 private operators of fixed telephony licensed in 2003; effective start in Q2 2004)  Frequent and unpredicted changes in regulations (esp. in case of telecom’s privatization)  Improvements with regard to e-regulation (strategy; law on electronic signature, secondary legislation in place; 2 providers of universal e- signatures licensed in 2003; amendments expected to introduce e- documents in the judiciary)  Implementation of adequate regulatory framework about R&D, innovation and large e-Government projects (PPPs) still lagging behind  IPR (and general PR) protection still weak

E-Bulgaria: Main Building Blocks  Background/methodology  Access  Learning/Education  Society  Economy/Business  Government  Overall trends

Assessment Model  91 variables  19 indicators  5 categories:  Access; Learning / Education; Society; Economy / Business; Government  Aggregate index

Status Quo: Access  International connectivity  National connectivity  Affordability of network access  Telephony - Mobile users - VoIP  BG DNS and TLD  Index dynamics

Affordability of internet Source: Bulgaria Online (ISP)

Mobile users dynamics Source: Vitosha Research, ISPO, ITU, mobile operators

VoIP: Growing business Source: ARC Fund’s estimates based on data and projections of BTC-Net and VoIP providers

Status Quo: e-Society  Users of computers  Users of Internet  Internet services  Internet users’ habits  Organizations online

Access to Internet Source: Vitosha Research representative surveys ( )

Access to PCs

Frequency of accessing Internet sites Source: Vitosha Research

Status Quo: Education / Learning  Technical facilities / ICT infrastructure in schools and universities  Teachers and ICT technologies  Internet sites of schools and universities  ICT training policy  ICT education

e-Learning/Education Source: MTC, Survey 2003

Connected PCs to Internet Source: MTC

Internet for teaching purposes Source: MTC

‘e’-Needs Financing

Status Quo: Economy / Business  Computer usage in business  Internet usage in business  Web space usage by business  Availability of e-payment instruments  ICT employment opportunities

Computers in business  Computers in use in 2003 fall in the range of 520 – 600 thousands.  Around 120 – 130 thousands are PCs at homes  About 130 – 160 thousands are used in the public administration  Some 270 – 310 thousands are used in the private sector.  After the initial slow-down of new computers penetration in 2000 and 2001 (mainly due to increased costs of complying with property rights for software used) businesses started to renew their computer infrastructure in 2002 and  Around 1/3 of computers in business were bought in the last two years.

e-Payments Source: Borika

Preferred goods purchased on the Internet Source: Vitosha Research

Thank you!