The conference “Europe at the Forefront of Digital Transformation: Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU 2018”, held in Sofia yesterday, focused public attention on two issues high up on the European agenda – the digital economy and the digital single market.

The event was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev, Lilyana Pavlova, Minister of the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU, 2018, the deputy ministers of transport and the economy, as well as representatives of the American Chamber of Commerce which organized the conference. The title of the forum immediately brings to mind one question: What is digital transformation? Answering this question will help us understand all other terms which will be cropping up more and more frequently, to become more and more important to the European family.

Digital transformation is a combination of approaches enabling us to be more competitive and well adapted to the surrounding environment, to live up to customer expectations quickly and readily. The short answer is that digital transformation helps a given business be more successful than its rival in a given sphere. The digital economy, on the other hand, is the economy of the future, that is the reason why this country must discover and make use of the advantages it gives. This is something all participants in the conference agreed on. In her statement, Minister Pavlova pointed out that practically every legislative initiative that will be developed during the country’s presidency has a digital element. That is why every working group that will be working on them will include a digital economy expert. Lilyana Pavlova laid emphasis on the country’s priorities within the framework of the rotating presidency. Bulgaria will complete the initiatives launched by Estonia, but will make its own contribution as well:

“The priorities we have set down for the Bulgarian presidency include adopting a cybersecurity strategy that will enable us to get the digital single market going and improve connectivity in all its dimensions. Our second priority is developing a competitive and well-functioning digital single market. The next objective is to build an economy based on the free movement of data. Another issue of exceptional importance is personal data protection and cybersecurity.”

Deputy Minister of Economy Lachezar Borisov added that the digital economy is growing at a rate seven times faster than the real economy, boosting employment in high-tech sectors which bring in the highest added value. He adduced as an example IT and the services, sectors in which there are over 10,000 companies employing more than 47,000 or 4.7 percent of all people

employed in the economy. The ministry of the economy has drafted a digital transformation concept for Bulgaria’s industry, aimed at facilitating the sector’s adaptation to new realities.

We are now living in the digital age and though at a slower pace, compared to the other European countries, Bulgaria is also venturing into it – the willingness to make efforts in this direction is there to be seen.

English version: Milena Daynova