site.btaBulgaria Ranks at Penultimate 27th Place in EU in Digital Economy and Society Index 2017

Bulgaria Ranks at  Penultimate 27th Place in EU in Digital Economy and Society Index 2017

Brussels, March 3 (BTA corr. Nikolay Jeliazkov ) - Bulgaria is ranked at the penultimate 27th place in the EU Digital Economy and Society Index 2017 (DESI 2017) published by the European Commission on Friday. DESI is a tool presenting the performance of the 28 Member States in a wide range of areas, from connectivity and digital skills to the digitisation of businesses and public services.

Bulgaria has progressed in the enhancement of its broadband infrastructure and in open data developments. However, its low performance in digital skills, digitisation of businesses and of public services are acting as a brake to the further development of Bulgaria's digital economy and society.

Following are the findings for Bulgaria in respect of the five DESI indicators:

1) Connectivity: More and more Bulgarians are taking up mobile broadband subscriptions and the share of fast broadband subscriptions continues to increase. However, the price of fixed broadband connections remains relatively high. The availability of spectrum for electronic communication is one of the lowest in the EU.
2) Human Capital: 58% of Bulgarians are online. Nevertheless, two thirds of citizens do not have basic digital skills and STEM graduate numbers have not increased, despite growing demand by the labour market.
3) Use of Internet: Bulgarians are intensive internet users when it comes to making video calls and using social networks. However, on average, they engage in online activities much less than other Europeans.
4) Integration of Digital Technology: Bulgaria is an important user of RFID but is not closing the gap when it comes to business digitisation. Particularly in eCommerce, SMEs rarely use electronic sales channels and their turnover from on-line sales is the lowest in the EU.
5) Digital Public Services: Bulgaria progressed in the provision of online public services thanks to the developments in Open Data, where Bulgaria has become one of the trendsetters in the EU. Nevertheless, citizens are not using eGovernment services as much as other Europeans do.

Overall the EU has progressed and improved its digital performance by 3 percentage points compared to last year, but progress could be faster and the picture varies across Member States (the digital gap - between the most and least digital countries - is 37 percentage points, compared to 36 percentage points in 2014), the EC said in a press release. Denmark, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands lead the DESI this year followed by Luxembourg, Belgium, the UK, Ireland, Estonia, and Austria. Slovakia and Slovenia are the EU countries which have progressed the most. Despite some improvements, several Member States including Poland, Croatia, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania, are still lagging behind in their digital development compared to the EU average.