STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS EVITA Kick-off meeting Athens, December 8-9th, 2008 ELISA events in BULGARIA

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS Bulgarian participants Two partners from Bulgaria took part in ELISA project - the State Agency for Information Technology and Communications(SAITC) as a leading Bulgarian partner and the Information Society Technologies Foundation(ISTF). The project team included experts with a necessary qualification and competence in the field of e- Learning and e-commerce, corresponding to the tasks in the action plan

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS State Agency for IT and Communications – Bulgarian partner In 2005 the Bulgarian government established a State Agency for IT and Communications in order to: Conduct the state management in the fields of IT, communications and Information Society in Bulgaria Synchronize and actively participate in ICT development in the public sector Coordinate Information Society activities Support the development of networks for security and defence Facilitate the establishment of partnerships and encourage the development of business relationships between Bulgarian and foreign companies in the ICT sector Coordinate the promotion and marketing of the Bulgarian ICT brand

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS Implement modifications and extensions to the selected e-Learning platform The project team worked on the development of a selected e-learning platform and on its adaptation to the local context, along with the complete translation of the training content into Bulgarian. The experts completed the customization of an existing e-Learning and e-communication tool, chosen during the previous stage of evaluation.

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS Implement modifications and extensions to the selected e-Learning platform This activity included a study of the status and application in the sphere of SMEs regarding services such as electronic commerce and transactions, education and training, networking, innovation and technology transfers, establishment of networks and partnerships between businesses and research institutes etc.

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS Training packages for SMEs Starting from existing training material of the Greek GoOnline initiative and e-business training material, a complete training package was produced by the leading partner of the project GRNET in English, including lessons on basic ICT skills, e-business processes, applications, solutions, legislation, e-banking, e- government, sectoral specificities, etc.

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS Training packages for SMEs The training materials were translated in Bulgarian by the Bulgarian project team. Furthermore, the training materials were customized to reflect particularities of Bulgarian SMEs in the local legislation and government-to-business services, namely with regard to production processes using ICT as well as to existing policy measures and documents on SMEs initiatives and the digital economy.

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS Adoption of ICT by enterprises Adoption of ICT by enterprises All Bulgarian enterprises with more than 10 employees - computerised 28 % of the enterprises with less than 10 employees had no computer Employees using a computer at their workplace – nearly 30 % in 2006 About 60 % of SMEs use ICT mostly for secretarial work, document registration and accounting activities

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS Adoption of ICT by enterprises Only 10 % of SMEs use ICT for management information systems, production automation systems, client relation management systems In 2007 about 90 % of the computers and 90 % of the enterprises linked to Internet In more than 50 % of the enterprises with more than ten employees with own websites

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS Legal Framework Law on Electronic Document and Electronic Signature Law on Access to Public Information Law on Personal Information Protection Amendments of the Criminal Code Law on Electronic Commerce Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Law on Administrative Servicing of Citizens and Legal Entities

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS Government to Business e-services Social security and health insurance information Public procurement Corporate taxes Customs declarations VAT Registration of Legal Entity Submission of tax declarations Submission of data to the National Statistical Institute

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS Existing Strategies and Programmes Existing Strategies and Programmes e-Government Strategy The National Strategy for Encouragement of SMEs Development, 2002 – 2009 Bulgarian National Innovation Strategy The National Investment Promotion Strategy, Operational Programme “Development of the Competitiveness of the Bulgarian Economy”

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS e-Business survival kit An e-business survival kit was created by the project partners. The e-Business survival kit was an easy to use guide-compilation including various chapters from the training materials (e.g., basic ICT skills, e-business practices, etc) A Bulgarian team took part in the translation(48 pages) and the quality control regarding, editing and customization of the content to the particularities of Bulgarian SMEs, local legislation and other country specific content and services.

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS e-Business survival kit As a result of this activity the leading partner of the project printed copies, including a 48-page booklet and a CD version of the training content. All e-Business survival kits were distributed to a large number of Bulgarian SMEs nationwide through different communication channels – dissemination seminars, the Bulgarian SME Promotion Agency, Network of telecentres, the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce, SME Associations and different NGOs, etc.

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS First training seminar for SME’s The first training seminar for SME’s in Bulgaria within the framework of the ELISA Project took place in the Bulgarian-Korean Telecenter in Sofia on the 19th and 20th of February 2007 using tele-education rooms inside the National Research and Educational Network.

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS First training seminar for SME’s 32 selected SME’s from various fields and regions participated in the training. The training was divided into sessions covering topics on basic IT skills for business and introduction to e- business – principles and best practices and entrepreneurship on the Internet (The Internet, Creating Websites, The e-Business Environment, e-Business – Business to Business (B2B), e-Business and Enterprise's Internal Operation etc.).

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS First Dissemination event Plovdiv, 11 May 2007 E-Commerce. Tools for SMEs E-Optimization Government institutions strategy for popularizing popularizing ICT for SMEs Search engine optimization Sharing good Practices ARC Fund Center for innovation and technology transfer-Global Ltd Regional Development Agency with Business Support Centre for SMEs Plovdiv, Bulgaria

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS First Dissemination event Plovdiv, 11 May 2007

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS Second Dissemination event Sofia, 12 October 2007 The Telecenters - training centers for increasing SME competitiveness using ICT CRM - good opportunities for development of the SME sector E-Commerce - Strengthening the international market positions of SMEs Benefits of utilizing e-business practices in the transport sector E-Learning - competitive SME sector E-Learning possibilities in the frame of EQN Perspectives of GRID-Technology for the small and medium business Financial resources for spin-off enterprises, Operational Program Development of the Competitiveness of the Bulgarian Economy

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS Second Dissemination event Sofia, 12 October 2007

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS Policy Makers Workshop Sofia, 11 October 2007 Policy recommendations Presentation from the Bulgarian partner of a proposal for National Level Training Strategy Discussion on ICT National Training Strategy Proposal Conclusion for future activities

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS Policy Makers Workshop Sofia, 11 October 2007 Representatives from both Bulgarian partners, the Ministry of economic and energetics in the person of Bulgarian SME Promotion Agency the Ministry of education and sciences Bulgarian Association for Information Technology Bulgarian Association of Software Companies

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS Policy Makers Workshop Sofia, 11 October 2007 Sofia University, Applied Research and Communication Foundation, Center for Innovation and Technology Transfer- Global Ltd, Regional Development Agency with Business Support Centre for SMEs Plovdiv, Bulgaria our partners from GRNET and from Danube Trained SMEs Tutors

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS Policy Makers Workshop Sofia, 11 October 2007

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS Policy recommendations There are three key essential recommendations to be taken into consideration while developing initiatives to encourage the adoption of ICT by SMEs: Raise awareness among SMEs of the benefits of ICT; Strengthen ICT literacy and build capacity in the alignment of business and ICT strategies; Create enabling environments for the adoption and growth of ICT firms.

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS National ICT training programme features The programme should provide: Information regarding the benefits and costs of adoption of ICTs E-learning courses that are flexible and tailored to specific ICT skills industries, employees’ position and role, or software/hardware applications; WEB-based consultancy and advice in adopting ICT applications new business processes and business models based on ICT, including e-commerce and e-business; WEB-based resource center for SME relevant digital content in Bulgarian and in other languages

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS Bulgarian ELISA team

STATE AGENCY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS Thank you very much for your attention!