The European Union (EU) will grant Bulgaria 300 million euro from the structural funds for the development of information and communication technologies (ICT), deputy chairperson of the State Agency of Information Technologies and Systems (SAITS) Krassimir Simonsky said on March 26. He was speaking at a conference on the development of Balkan trade in Blagoevgrad.

Teachers in computer sciences from the American University in Bulgaria and experts in the communication sphere from Serbia, Macedonia and the US attended the conference. Simonsky presented SAITS priorities and goals, as well as the development trends of ICT in Bulgaria during 2007.

ICT accounted for 8.4 per cent of Bulgaria's 2007 gross domestic product (GDP). According to statistics quoted by Simonsky, 70 per cent of the population used mobile services. In Sofia 88 per cent of the population used mobile devices, in the different regions it was 78 per cent, in small towns 66 per cent and 55 per cent in rural areas.

The share of people using land line services remained high - 56 per cent in 2007. However, this number is gradually decreasing.

Thirty-four per cent of the Bulgarians used the internet in 2007, 28 per cent of which had their own connection at home. This was an increase from the 16 per cent in 2006, Simonsky said. Thirty two per cent of Bulgarians in the different regions used the internet but only five per cent of people in rural areas.

According to the statistics, Bulgarians used the internet mainly for checking their emails. The second most common use was for reading online news and collecting information. Only five per cent of the local population paid bills over the internet in 2007.

There were currently 5000 IT companies in Bulgaria. The majority of their income, 80 per cent, came from contracts with European and American companies.

According to Simonsky, one of the weaknesses of the Bulgarian IT market was the lack of locally produced products.

During the conference Simonsky also outlined the goals of SAITS, which had been set until 2011. One of them was for ICT to account for 10 per cent of local GDP.

Bulgaria has also developed several strategic documents with the aim of creating a framework within which the operational programmes will be developed.

According to Simonsky, one of SAITS biggest achievements was the optimisation of the schools' internet, which is currently the second best in Europe. There were 3200 Bulgarian schools in the network and 2119 had already connected their computers to the common system.

Simonsky also said that for Bulgaria, the EU and reaching its standards was a real challenge in the IT sector.