Google to open permanent representative offices in Bulgaria

Google plans to open permanent representative offices in Bulgaria, Google Vice President Vinton G. Cerf said during a meeting Wednesday between managers of IT companies and MPs of the parliamentary Transport and Communications Committee. Cerf argued that if Bulgaria wants to develop Internet-based services, education, training and inflow of high-skilled staff, developing of SMEs and ensuring a potential for a foothold on the Bulgarian market of companies such as Google must be a national policy priority.

Widely known as a "Father of the Internet," Cerf is also chairman of the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Cerf visited Bulgaria to take part in a session of the IT Council with President Georgi Purvanov, held on Tuesday.

Chairman of the parliamentary Transport and Communications Committee Yordan Mirchev said that by sponsoring amendments to the relevant legislation, the Committee will guarantee the development of the IT business. Mirchev said that by the end of the week the cabinet will discuss a new electronic messages bill while in September and October the Committee organizes a comprehensive debate about the new ICT legislation.

The representatives of the world IT companies noted that it would be a legislative mistake not to observe the so-called technological neutrality. In their view, Bulgaria should develop a national policy about the Internet society where the technological issues should be solved by the experts in the private sectors. The legal system too must stay technologically neutral and should not make a difference between a crime perpetrated in a computer or with a gun, they said. The IT pundits also said that the most important task at the moment is to teach people to cooperate on the Internet and to create a society of electronic mutual assistance.

The foreign experts also noted that Bulgaria does not yet have a credit card economy. Relatively few people do transactions on the Internet because there is not a mechanism to guarantee security of information, the experts noted.

BTA