A few days ago, the Bulgarian government adopted a strategy for e-government in the country. Under it public administration should enter 21 c. by 2020 and in this way make things easier for the business, the citizens and itself. In practice, this has been the second such strategy for the past ten years. The logic behind the adoption of a second strategy is that reforms in the sector have not yielded desirable results. Bulgaria is something of a champion by the quantity of strategies, concepts, programs and plans for the development of e-services and at the same time is Europe’s outsider in this regard, Deputy PM Daniela Bobeva admitted. And indeed, in early 2013, from the total of 562 administrations just 80 offered e-services, the government reports. The fact that e-government benefits the whole society is made obvious by the colossal cost of the administrative burden for businesses, citizens and the civil servants: in excess of 1 billion euro per annum. In estimates made by experts, after the start of administrative e-services this cost will be cut down by 30%.

The question is, however, whether all preconditions for the introduction of an electronic administration in the country are in place. Unfortunately, this question has got no unambiguous answer. Bulgaria is known for its excellent and quality access to the Internet and in some charts has been quoted among the top three countries worldwide. This in itself is a very good starting point for the launch of an e-administration and one reason for the great popularity of the few electronic services delivered locally. Despite the incomplete range of available services online, the national gateway www.egovt.bg does a very good job though run at an experimental regime. In the meantime, however, some shocking statistics have been released regarding Internet use in Bulgaria. They suggest that not more than 54% of the country’s citizens have access to the worldwide web. Well, at least the number of the technological outsiders has constantly declined. In 2010 their numbers came to 3 million, a year later to 2.5 million and in 2012 to 2.38 million from a total population of 7 million.

The trend is generally positive and the government program has taken this into account setting a deadline in 2020. It is financed with EU funding worth 145 million euros for digital growth and 30 million for infrastructure in rural regions. This realistic approach is worthy of praise and represents a certain guarantee that the strategy for electronic services’ launch will not become one of the failed programs or plans.

English Daniela Konstantinova