Several important national events
promoting Information Society in the country took place during
the final quarter of 1999.
The yearly National
Conference Telecom’99 was held in October 1999.
Participants from foreign countries also participated in
the forum. The meeting comprised representatives from the
telecommunications business sector, academic institutions
and state agencies. The main focus of discussion was on
infrastructure developments although business issues were
also covered.
The BAIT EXPO’99 is the
biggest IT exhibition in Bulgaria. 87 companies
participated. A rich workshops programme was also
organised with invited lecturers from leading
manufacturers. The non-governmental organisations
participated actively in promoting IS developments in
different sectors. The Bulgarian Association for
Information Technologies (BAIT) was the principal
organiser of the event.
The Association for the
Development of the Information Society organised two
national seminars "Higher Education in IS" and
"Lifelong Learning in IS". New educational
opportunities with increasing impact on the whole of
society were presented and discussed.
A joint activity of the
Committee for Posts and Telecommunications and IDG –
Bulgaria was the seminar on "State E-governance and
IS", held on 15 December 1999. In the afternoon of
the same day the Co-ordination Council on IS at the
Bulgarian Government discussed the most pressing issues
in the development of IS in the country, especially in
the light of the official invitation extended to Bulgaria
on 10.12.1999 in Helsinki to start negotiations for full
membership of the EU.
The development of IS in
Bulgaria was presented in a number of international
meetings. The development of IS in Bulgaria was presented
in a separate stand at the Helsinki’99 Conference.
The co-ordination of the Bulgarian participation was done
by the Permanent Working Group on IS at the Co-ordination
Council of Information Society. During the conference a
workshop on "Digital Regional Economy" was
held. Bulgarian representatives presented the state of IS
development in the country.
Bulgarian representatives
took also part in the Second Regional Forum on
Development of IS in Thessaloniki, Greece (9-10 October
1999) and in the First Conference on Electronic Commerce
in Southeast Europe (Thessaloniki, 22-24 October 1999).
The achievements of the country in the field of
telecommunications were also presented at the 8th
exhibition TELECOM’99 and INTERACTIVE’99 (10-17
October 1999, Geneva). It is necessary to acknowledge the
assessment of the European Commission in its Report for
1999. It is stated, in relation to the process of the
accession of Bulgaria to the EU, that for "…Information
Society, research and development, education, and in the
field of audiovision Bulgaria will have minor
difficulties in achieving the Acquis Communotaire of
EU..."
