On May 15  2009 the chairmen of the Bulgarian ICT Business organizations (ICT Cluster, BAIT, BASSCOM, Bulgarian Web Association),  and Political party NMSS  signed memorandum for collaboration and  sustainable development of the ICT Sector in Bulgaria.

The agreement was signed by:

Peter Statev (Bulgarian ICT Cluster), Teodor Zahov (BAIT, Association of Electronic Communications) Georgi Brashnarov ( Bulgarian Association of Software Companies), Dimitar Ganev ( Bulgarian Web Association) and deputy chairman of NMSS – Mr. Milen  Velchev

The document was signed in the attendance of the chairman of Parliamentary Committee of Transport and Communications – professor Jordan Mirchev (NMSS).

The aim of the memorandum is to unite the efforts of the Bulgarian politicians and the Business for acceleration of the development of the information and communication technologies in Bulgaria.

By the signing of the memorandum, the NMSS agrees to include in its election program parts of the document, and to participate in expert working groups and to support its implementation by the government.

The Initiative is organized by the Coordination Council for Information Society at Council of Ministers, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economic and Energetic and Ministry of State Administration and Administrative Reform.

The main points of the conference were the experiences and good practices in Bulgaria and Europe, analysis of regulatory framework and the opportunities and perspectives for building public – private partnership in the ICT area.

Mrs. Rumyana Konteva, representative of Broadband Initiative, which coordinator is Bulgarian ICT Cluster made a presentation about the “Models for development and management of networks for broadband access”.  The representative of Bulgarian ICT Cluster participated at the event was Ms. Anna Naydenova.

Representatives of “Telecommunications Cluster” participated at the Bulgarian National Industrial Exhibition. The event was part of the program devoted to Year of Bulgaria in Russia, between the 27 – 30th of April 2009.

The Bulgarian Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Agency (BSMEPA) was organizer of the participation and national presentation of the exhibitions.

The National Exhibition in Moscow gave opportunity for presentation of the Bulgarian export potential abroad and to encourage the development of bilateral trade and economic relationships and partnerships in business environment between Bulgaria and Russia.

The year of Bulgaria in Russia offered good opportunity for exhibition of the Bulgarian ICT industry and examination with the potential and characteristics of the Russian ICT market and industry. “Telecommunications Cluster” represented a common integrated solution for broadband access on the stand of the Bulgarian ICT Industry.

On 22 April 2009 representatives of ICT organizations Astel, BAIT, BASSCOM, ICT CLUSTER, SEK and Bulgarian Web Association, actuated by the understanding that the goals, missions and problems of ICT sector are common for all,  signed a Memorandum for collaboration.

ICT are unabolished part of the infrastructure of the country and have a leading role for building and development of knowledge based society. They are tools and accelerators for improve the quality of the education and professional qualification.

The organizations came to terms:

- To work actively for accelerated development of the informational and communicational technologies in our country, so they can be completely and efficiently put into practice in the government of the country, by founding and executing of state politics that assure sustainable development Of the Bulgarian economy and the ICT sector.
- To work actively for improvement of educational system of the country by implementation of ICT in the education process and professional qualification. To work actively for realization of a program for creating in population adequate IT knowledge and skills, as a part of the common measures for competitive power of the nation.
- To work together for building of normative and legislative base for ensuring of Public – Private partnership. They agreed that  the public – private partnerships give the opportunity for realization of the state projects , completely or partly financed by the Private Business with subsequent exploitation. This gives the opportunity to be compensate the lack of commercial interest by the progress of definite regions/industries/technologies.
- The sides, leaded by the necessity for improving the effectiveness of the public costs, will work for implementation of system approach for coordination of the important ICT projects and essential  increasing of share  of  public services provided by the private sector.
- To work actively for improvement and realization of the intellectual potential of Bulgaria. In relation with this to be taken  common measures for stimulating of people that are studying in the area of ICT and to be elaborated plans for long – term projects for motivating specialists to work and create in country.
- The sides will work for build an adequate package of measures -  legislative, economical, financial for creating of favorable conditions for innovations development  and their  industrialization
- In terms global recession of the trust and collapse of the World Finance system both sides will work for  creating of brand  of  Bulgaria, as  honest  member of the European union,  First class Business partner and regional center for innovations and sustainable development
- The representatives of the Bulgarian ICT sector are ready to create expert commissions and other bodies for collaboratively work,, with aim to formulate and implement the previously mentioned principles as main priorities of  the management, monitoring and participating in the following realisation

The Project I3E – Promoting the innovation in the field of the industrial informatics and embedded systems was approved for financing  by the Transnational program “ South – East Europe” of the European Commission.

The leading organization of the project is the Institute for Industrial Systems – ATHENA ISL. There are 12 consortium partners. Partners from Bulgaria are the ICT Cluster and Foundation for New Bulgarian University.  The main goal of the project is the creation of a transnational network for transformation of the research projects from industrial informatics  and embedded systems into innovation. Duration of the project is 3 years.

On 20th March, 2009 in Holiday Inn Hotel in Business Park Sofia a MODERN CONSUMER IN THE DIGITAL WORLD conference took place.

Organizations of the event are European Commission, E-bay, ICT Cluster and CEIBG.

The conference is oriented towards:

- Young intensive Internet users;
- Telecom operators’ representatives;
- Internet service providers,
- e-shops companies.

Special guest of the event were Mrs. Meglena Kuneva, European Commissioner for Consumer Affairs.

The European Finance Convention in partnership with BCCI (Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry) organisеd “The Bulgaria Business&Investment Summit”. The event was held during the period 5-6th march, 2009 in Sheraton Hotel, Sofia

Representatives from the financial sector, investors, business leaders and representatives from the national and regional administration took part at the event.
Mr. Peter Statev, Chairman of the ICT Cluster, made a presentation about “Public Private Partnership: A Solid Base and Effective Instrument for National Broadband Initiative Realization”.

For more information - here. (http://www.euroconvention.com/events.php?action=details&event_id=9&sub=intro)

On February 28th, 2009 the implementation of Project “Creation of Telecommunications Cluster and Establishment of Sustainable Cluster Strategy” BG 2005/017-586.04.02/ESC/G/CDI-II-003, financed by PHARE Program and Ministry of Economy and Energy was officially ended.

On February 26, 2009 in Central Park Hotel in Sofia, Bulgaria the Broadband IP Services Conference took place.

The event was attended by representatives from:

• Information and Communication Technology
• Government Bodies and Associations
• Telecom & Media
• Internet Service Providers
• Content Providers
• Incumbents and Alternative Telecom Operators (fixed and mobile, cable, LAN, WiMAx) and Broadcasters
• Specialized and Business Media
• Enterprise Sector: Banking & Financial, Utility, Government, Retail, etc.

Mr. Peter Statev (ICT Cluster) and Mr. Kamen Rangelov (State Agency for Information Technology and Communications) presented the New Bulgarian Government Strategy for Broadband Access.

Representatives of Bulgarian ICT Cluster attended the conference on clusters, which was held on 26-27 January 2009, in Budapest, Hungary.The event was organized by Hungarian Pole Office.

The objective of the conference was to shape and define the Central European cluster development practice in the light of the recently approved cluster policy of the EU and the best European examples. Furthermore there were discussions on the specific features of the Hungarian cluster policy, the local challenges and the responses to all those.

Special guests of the conference were Senator Peirre Laffitte and Mr. Jean-Daniel Tordjman, Ambassador for competitive clusters in France.

Ms. Anna Naydenova, Project Manager of Bulgarian ICT Cluster, presented cluster’s activities and shared experience in the field of cluster management at the Network Development Section of the second day.

From 27th November 2008 Bulgarian ICT Cluster is a member of The ACHIEVE MORE Partnership. The project is a platform for collaboration of early stage investors, 50 EU business and technology incubators and 15 clusters specialising in accelerating the growth of knowledge intensive service companies in the ICT sector.

ACHIEVE MORE is being developed as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme of the European Commission by nine partners: St John's Innovation Centre (UK), EuConnect Ltd (UK), EBN (Belgium), Innovationsbron (Sweden), Finance Tree (UK), UKBI (UK), Institute for Work & Technology (Germany), Gate Garchinger (Germany) and CERAM Sophia Antipolis Business School (France).

The main ambition of the Partnership is to accelerate growth of knowledge-intensive service SMEs via a new platform called the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Exchange (EIX) that enables its partners to actively:

*       Exchange know-how, expertise and better  practice in leading-edge incubation
*      Learn about innovative coaching tools and methodologies that are proven to accelerate start-up growth globally, whether developed by a member of the network or an organisation outside the Partnership
*       Experiment with new models for seed funds attached to incubators and clusters

On 25th November 2008, in Sheraton Hotel, Sofia, a Conference on the theme “Towards e-municipality – the digital city” took place. Organizer of the Conference was Foundation “Internet and Law”. Partners of the Conference were: Motorola, Materna Group, VoiceCom, IBSolution, Cisco, ICW, Ericsson, SAP, Bull and Sildex.

The Conference was opened by Mr. Boiko Borisov, Mayor of Sofia City. Mr. Borisov said that two and a half years earlier there was established “one office” in 90 municipalities in Bulgaria. During that time there were none in Sofia. Today, Mr. Borisov said that there is “one office” established in 21-22 of the 24 sections of Sofia.

Mr. Rosen Jelyazkov, Chief Secretary of Sofia Municipality, made a presentation on the theme “Sofia towards a better future using digital services”.

Mr. Jelyazkov described the current condition of Sofia Municipality and accented on the maim problems: lack of quality in serving the citizens and the business representatives and the inefficient spending of the financial resources for implementation of  IT projects.

The first steps in order to deal with the problem have been already done:

-Sofia Municipality now has a clear vision how a digital municipality should be developed,
-The first components needed a System of Systems (Integrated Informational System of Sofia Munisipality) to be created are already defined,
-Recruitment of qualified personnel.

Representatives of the Austrian Ministry of Internal Affairs and sector “ E-government” of the Wien Municipality - Mr. Osvald Kesler  and Mr. Rinzner were guest-speakers of the conference. They shared the Austrian experience in the development of E-Government. For two years in a row (2006, 2007) Austria kept the firs place in the list of “Best developed e-government” among all 27 EU member states.

Representatives of the Ministry of State Administration and Administrative Reform presented the opportunities municipality’s projects to be financed through Operational Programme Administrative Capacity.

The partners of the Conference made presentations of their e-services that would facilitate the citizens, such as:

-Creation of an unified vision of all websites of the administration (MaternaGroup),
-Creation of “One number for NON-emergency matters” (Cisco),
-Broadband development  (Motorola and Ericsson),
-Applying SMS payment system (VoiceCom),
-The advantages of SAP Net Weaver Platform (IBSolution),
-“City card” (BULL),
-Electronic patient’s file/electronic recepies etc. (ICW),
-Traffic optimization using GSM signals (Sildex).