SOFIA IS THE THIRD BEST PLACE IN EUROPE TO START AN ICT BUSINESS

On 10th June, Bulgarian businesses, universities and the government signed a memorandum on National Coalition for Digital Jobs. The coalition has nothing to do with politics. It is created as part of the Grand Coalition initiative of the European Commission and aims at attracting more people into the new technologies. According to European studies, Sofia is the third best place in Europe to start an ICT business.

The European Commission launched the Grand Coalition for digital jobs initiative (04 March 2013) to tackle lack of digital skills in Europe and because Information and Communication technologies (ICT) give a perspective opportunity to solve the problem with 6 million unemployed young people in Europe and the shortfall of qualified ICT specialists.

There is a demand for specialists in the areas of mobile applications, large volumes of information, coding and security, said Constantijn Van Orange-Nassau, the Head of Cabinet of Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Digital Agenda. According to him, many people have the necessary skills, but do not have the required qualification.

The ICT sector in Bulgaria expects 20% growth this year. Currently, almost 40 000 people work in this sector. In Europe, a shortfall of up to 900 000 ICT professionals is expected over the next years. In 7 years, according to European data, over 95% of the professions will need digital literacy skills and enhanced knowledge about digital technologies.

Gergana Passy, the digital champion for Bulgaria, says that the young children, who start school, need to be provided with the appropriate knowledge and training, relevant to the ICT development.

As part of the new National Coalition for Digital Jobs, universities have to adapt their curricula to the new requirements of the ICT industry and schools need to teach children, from very early age, skill like file formatting, work with tables and solving problems related to computer and mobile devices.