site.btaBulgaria to Receive EUR 1,100 Mln to Develop Telecom Projects under Connecting Europe Facility

Bulgaria to Receive EUR 1,100 Mln to Develop Telecom Projects under Connecting Europe Facility

Sofia, October 2 (BTA) - A total of 1,100 million euro have been
allocated for Bulgaria under the Connected Communities
Initiative for 2014-2020, Bulgaria's Transport, Information
Technologies and Communications Minister Nikolina Angelkova
said. She was speaking at Thursday's opening of an information
day to popularize the opportunities for funding
telecommunication projects under the Connecting Europe Facility
(CEF).

Representatives of the European Commission and the World Bank
presented the Connected Communities Initiative launched this
year. "The allocation is quite large and Bulgaria should avail
itself of the funds by all means," Angelkova said. She expressed
the hope that the information day would create good conditions
for sharing ideas with partners of the World Bank, which will
practically lead to more active participation of the bank in
this process.

The EU's new funding mechanism was established for
infrastructure projects of common interest for trans-European
transport, energy and telecoms networks, Angelkova said.

CEF has a financial package of 33,200 million euro, including
26,200 million euro for transport, 1,100 million euro for
telecommunications and over 5,800 million euro for the energy
sector.

"Internet is becoming the dominant platform for communication in
economic activity, provision of services, social and cultural
communication," Angelkova said. "For this reason access to
high-speed Internet on a trans-European scale is essential for
both economic growth and the common market."