site.btaUPDATED Automotive Cluster Bulgaria CEO: Bulgaria Can Become Europe's Leader in Automotive Software Development

Automotive Cluster Bulgaria CEO Lyubomir Stanislavov said in an interview for BTA that Bulgaria has the potential to become a leading country in automotive software development in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), if not in all of Europe. He added that in modern cars, software is leading the way, and electronics account for more than 50% of a car's value.

Stanislavov spoke about an event entitled Accelerating Innovation: Unveiling Bulgaria’s Automotive Software Power and organized by Automotive Cluster Bulgaria and MEPs Andrey Kovatchev and Eva Maydell, which took place in the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday. The goal of the forum, which gathered representatives of European institutions, business leaders and experts, was to spotlight Bulgaria's strides in the automotive software industry and make the country more visible to potential investors.

The CEO of Automotive Cluster Bulgaria said that the automotive industry in Bulgaria employs some 80,000 people of whom about 7,000 are software engineers. He noted that there is a spike in the need for such experts and added: "Fortunately, we can take and train personnel from other software industries. By 2030, that number is likely to grow to 15,000. This would put us among the leading countries in CEE both in terms of the number of people involved in this industry and the performance of these companies." Stanislavov said that the introduction of AI has significantly increased the efficiency of these companies.

Stanislavov said that he helped attract German company Bosch to Bulgaria, as a result of which Bosch Engineering Center Sofia was built here. He continued: "At the moment, the centre is many times more efficient than the ones in Germany or Hungary, because of the way the organization was set up. And we are not talking about lower salaries for employees. The savings come from the fact that our engineers work more efficiently, and there is less need for coordination."

According to Stanislavov, turning Bulgaria into a hub for the automotive industry would require having children in high school learn that the job of automotive engineer is interesting, pays well and offers prospects. He noted, however, that "making" an engineer is a hard process that could take five to ten years and added: "The industry does not have time to wait, so the second topic is the import of people. India for example is emerging as one of the leading automotive software countries in the world. Why not import specialists from there? This way, until we make our own experts, we have people to work with."