“If you don’t have Internet, you’re doomed to isolation”, said Petar Ivanov, Sisco Systems central Europe Managing Director. He was addressing a government-business discussion on” Information Technologies- the motor behind economic growth”, taking place in Sofia.

Discussion panelists accentuated that in the midst of an economic and financial crisis cutting down expenditures holds back the progress of economy, while investments in key economic sectors such as information and communication technologies will stimulate the development of all sectors.

“Looking at the market in six countries, I can tell you that we must be proud as a nation with what we’ve gained. According to a Oxford University study, Bulgaria’s capital Sofia is one ten best Internet cities in the world. If 70 years ago electrification was the engine behind progress, today this is the Internet and communications. This is the case in all industrial departments. If you don’t have high-speed Internet you’re practically doomed to isolation. Bulgaria is in an enviable position because it has open competition of n the telecommunications market”, Petar Ivanov told Radio Bulgaria.

IT experts consider the lack of any regulation in the Internet sector in Bulgaria ever since its emergence in Bulgaria as the main cause of having qualitative access to the Internet.

The incumbent government is presently putting together an IT development strategy Deputy Transport Minister Parvan Russinov shared at the debate. Lack of strategic planning and piecemeal action have been outstanding problems:

“We’ve seen in many advanced countries that investments in IT innovations and education have brought in manifold returns; they can ensure up to as much as a quarter of GDP growth and 50%lof production growth. That is why we’ve approached the matter very seriously and have set down our priorities. We’re presently finalizing an action plan specifying concrete activities, goals, terms that we’re going to subject to a very broad debate with people involved in the sector. The development of broadband Internet access is a key priority with us. High-speed Internet is to us the major driver of social and economic development in the following years”, said Deputy Transport Minister Parvan Russinov.

Developing Internet availability needs funds, which in our case could in one instance be in the form of a 15 million euros tranch under the EU Economic Reconstruction Plan, allocated to Bulgaria for the purposes of developing a broadband infrastructure in sparsely populated areas.

A most recent study carried out by the debate hosts has indicated that global Internet traffic will leap fivefold by 2013, with video-exchange taking over the Internet space and video-communication traffic pole-vaulting 10 times.

English version: Margarita Dikanarova