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by:
Prof. Dr. Roumen Nikolov
Department of Information Technologies
Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics
University of Sofia
P.B. 48; 5, J. Bouchier; Sofia 1164; Bulgaria
Tel: +359-2-6256 511, tel./fax: +359-2-656157
http://www-it.fmi.uni-sofia.bg/
Sofia and Bonn, February 2000
Contact:
Gesellschaft für Kommunikations- und Technologieforschung mbH, Oxfordstr. 2, D-53111 Bonn
Tel.: (+49 02 2) 9 85 30-0, Fax: (+49 02 28) 9 85 30-12, Email: info@empirica.com, http://www.empirica.com, http://www.ecatt.com, Contact: Werner B. Korte
E-commerce in Bulgaria is at awareness stage. There are: a political will, national program (since 1998) for development of the information society, a national coordinator for E-commerce (former Minister of trade and tourism. The Ministry of Trade and Tourism formed jointly with former Ministry of Industry, commencing 23 December 1999, a new Ministry of Economy. It will have its functions defined by February 2000). There are some non-governmental organizations like Bulgarian Industrial Association and Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which became Internet providers and are claiming that they offer e-commerce solutions. The experience for the time being is that the e-commerce is not well developed for two basic reasons:
Recently the government has prepared a draft National Program on Electronic Commerce which identifies the main priorities for the development of e-commerce. The priorities specified are:
As issues necessary to be solved soon could be pointed out:
There are about 164 Internet providers in Bulgaria. Major ones are 5-7 like SPNET, Orbitel, BTK, Gocis, InternetBG, Techno-Link, Digsys. The number of hosts in bg-domain is about 10700 and the number of Internet users is more than 120 000.
There are about 15000 - 20000 existing and potential business customers. Developments are very dynamic and after the privatization of the Bulgarian Telecommunication Company, which will start in a few months processees will speed up even further.
It is of great regional importance that business-to-administration (b2a) component could have immediate implementation with customs and tax authorities as a tool for communication. It might be included in PHARE pre-accession assistance.
The major Bulgarian commercial banks (about 15-20) are using SWIFT. The EDI is not yet applicable. There are wide implementation of some internationally accepted codes, classifiers, nomenclatures by Customs - Single Administrative Documents, etc. which are building sound basis for future UN/EDIFACT implementation in b2a.
According to the draft of the Strategy for Information Society development the EDIFACT standard should be implemented by the Ministry of Transport and Communications and Ministry of Economics and Trade.
There are about 1000 companies with EAN national ID number. At the same time, there are practically no legal regulations on this type of transactions. That is why banks offer only home banking products so far and the lack of regulation regarding the electronic signatures and online payments requires that the electronically generated payment orders are duplicated by paper ones, which makes the procedures a little bit clumsy and lowers the attractiveness of the banking product, while increasing its cost.
Rather not. The quality and reliability of Bulgarian Internet services are far from excellent. There are no VAN providers yet.
The Telecommunications Law stipulates that state monopoly shall be established till the end of 2002 over the provision of the ordinary telephony service (local, long distance, transit and international) between terminal points of the fixed telephony network and over the provision of leased lines under publicly announced conditions. All telecommunications operators are obliged in this period to establish their networks using leased lines. The interconnection of networks is in principle foreseen by the Law and the necessary regulatory framework will be prepared by the end of 2002.
The government has developed several initiatives for support of e-commerce in Bulgaria:
The emphasize is given on high technologies development in the country, the creation of high technology parks, the adequate legal framework and other promotional measures.
There are some foreign investments in 3-5 software development companies, working on an outsourcing basis. Some of these companies have developed and offered Y2K solutions.
Internet access costs are for unlimited access - 20 - 100 USD monthly by different speed. The average monthly salary is about 115 USD. The average salary in the IT sector is 6-10 times more. The expenses of computers, software, and Internet access are affordable for the business organizations.
