Speaking at an event on ICT and innovation in Bulgaria organised by Microsoft in its Brussels Executive Briefing Centre on 8 March 2007, Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev talked about what he called "Bulgaria's new technological revolution", an event that he deemed of equal importance as the transition from the agricultural state to industrial production.
Stanishev stressed the particular importance that education has played in Bulgarian tradition since the country's independence from the Osman empire, for which Bulgarian-language schools were an important motor. He said that this tradition was what was at the heart of Bulgaria's high educational achievement today, with Bulgaria accounting for instance for the second-largest foreign student community in Germany; topped only by China. Stanishev went on to sketch the importance of the Bulgarian ICT sector in cold-war times (48% of all computers produced in the Comecon were made in Bulgaria).
Stanishev went on to quote some of the figures that mark Bulgaria's emerging success as an economy driven by education and ICT:
- 80% of all students have internet access;
- in schools, there is one computer for every 12 pupils;
- the e-Bulgaria index, which provides an analysis of the country’s preparedness for the information society, experienced a 30% growth between 2005 and 2006;
- 80% of ICT revenue in Bulgaria is generated from contracts with EU and US partners, and;
- Bulgaria scores #21 in the 2015 forecast of the Horasis / Going Global Ventures report on global IT outsourcing.
Stanishev outlined measures Bulgaria plans to take in order to sustain the present fast growth of its ICT sector, including:
- Supporting ICT pick-up by SMEs;
- fostering Bulgarian participation in European programmes;
- including ICT in curricula, starting from a very young age;
- further roll-out of broadband to schools, universities and research institutes;
- developing ICT infrastructure, and;
- adoption of a national information security policy.
