Sofia Municipality Offers New Electronic Services to the Public

More than 80% of the Bulgarians still prefer to receive services “at countrers”, according to data from the State Agency for Electronic Governance. The first steps to launch electronic government were made nearly 20 years ago, yet our country is still far behind the rest of the EU countries.

The municipality of Sofia offers a total of 50 services online. However, most people still prefer to wait at the counter. In 2017, only 4 million BGN from the taxes of the citizens of Sofia were paid electronically. Every year, the number of people willing to use this type of service increases by 10%.

Up to now, the municipality has opened 27 databases. By the end of this year 23 more are expected, mainly related to the activities of the Centre for Urban Mobility and the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning.

We are actively participating in the working groups of the State Agency for Electronic Governance to identify those services in the municipalities that are used by the largest number of people, so far we have identified 13 such services," the Mayor said.

The Municipality of Sofia presents a new pilot project, which has to overcome bureaucracy in enrolling children in kindergardens, initially in 20. From the beginning of the next school year, parents will not have to carry papers issued by the municipality. “These are certificates of birth and especially certificates of current address," the Mayor added.

Data of EC show that Malta, Denmark, Sweden, Estonia and Norway are among the top five countries with the best online administration. In Bulgaria, the development of the e-governance has been going on for 16 years.

First of all we have to say good bye to the illusion that the introduction of e-governance is like switching on the lights of the Christmas tree. We turn them on, the tree gets lit up and we are all happy and applauding. This is a step-by-step process where the inclusion of every next system will take time, Tomislav Donchev, Deputy Prime Minister said.

Recent studies show that there are about 4.6 million mobile internet users and about 1.5 million users of fixed line internet. At the same time, the share of active users of online services does not exceed 7%.