Information and Communications Technology in Bulgaria according to a foreign expert

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Monday 16 July 2007

„A huge window of opportunities is opened in the field of information communication and technologies in Bulgaria; seize the historic momentum“... The advice comes from Gabriel Accascina, a respected expert in the field of ICT for development. A man that worked in more than 100 countries around the world to lend a hand in capacity building, knowledge sharing, development of national and corporate IT policies and strategies and establishment of telecenters networks and related services including e-Government solutions. Gabriel is currently Director of IT4DEV, an organization assisting governments, organisations, financial institutions and corporations in using information communication and technology to foster socio-economic development.

Gabriel Accascina was chosen to perform the independent mid-term evaluation of the Telecenters project. “T-Centers”, the joint project of the Bulgarian Government and UNDP, was initiated in 2004 and its main objective is to establish a network of telecenters that provide public access to the Internet and other related services in small and remote communities.

The mid-term evaluation of the project aims to assess the overall relevance, performance and success of the T-Centers project so far. In an interview Gabriel shares his impressions from his work here with the T-Centres network and comments on the existing opportunities in the country to strengthen its ICT potential:

„In general the situation and the opportunities for the country are very similar to what we see in other countries which have the same type of social economic development: you have very high level of expertise but still fairly low wages and a very uneven degree of competitiveness in terms of the position of the country vis-a-vis other countries that provide similar services.

So let’s look at the two components here:

One is ICT for the “internal use” or development of services at the national level. I think here I have seen the beginning of a very large opportunity. The T-centers network, which UNDP is supporting, is critical because it opens the door to services that are offered through ICT and which eventually will become transparent to the users. The T-centers should make available to citizens a wide range of government related services, or social services (education, health related), and others that have to do with business opportunities, for instance SME support, facilitation in obtaining services, licensees.. Obviously this prospect opens the door to many opportunities, so we are witnessing the beginning of a very large movement in this direction. More T-centers in the future will tap into the potential of many people to offer services and to share expertise. It should be the vision for the future network. It will happen much as it happens in Estonia, in Romania, and in a number of other countries that followed the same path of socio-economic progress

The second component is the possibility of Bulgaria to play a role in the international market. It is very important and today and the process should be fostered. For example we are working with aid management software – it helps the countries to manage the flow of foreign aid. In countries like Bulgaria it could be offered at a very competitive price. Or look at the European connection: in a new EU member state the efforts should be to develop services and IT solutions to a point of international recognition of their quality. The state, the public institutions should provide support mechanism to the companies and boost their visibility to the outside world so that the private sector can develop and offer competitive services to the European market. Once you get the mechanisms you can provide both for government and for corporate sector fairly steady flow of services.

Today you need a short survey of opportunities, a critical assessment of bottlenecks, and maybe some incentives for the sector. You are going through a historical moment which is not going to last very long. In two-three years from now the window is going to close by the nature of the integration with Europe. It is important to think and act now.“

by „United Nations Development Programme: Compass Bulletin“

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Date: 9 May 2008

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