The Bulgarian Association for Information technologies /BAIT/ marked 20 years since it has been founded with its traditional spring meeting of its member-companies. The event brought together about 50 representatives from 31 companies – members of BAIT, as well as guests from other ICT associations.
Each one of the nine Chairs of the Managing Board through the years – Nikolay Iliev, Yordan Kisyov, Milcho Borov, Vasil Hristovich, Vasil Vasilev, Zlatko Zlatkov, Boyan Boychev, Theodore Zahov and Peter Ivanov, was honored with a plaque for special merits in the development of ICT sector in Bulgaria.
Deputy Prime Minister Rumiana Bachvarova was the special guest of the event and she made an exposé on a few current topics for the sector – the upcoming formation of an e-government state agency as well as providing the necessary personnel for the ICT industry to enable it to continue to develop with the pace which is capable of.
“We have decided to create an e-government state agency at this week’s meeting of the Council of Ministers. We are now working on all legislation that arranges work of this structure and normative acts will be offered for public debate. The agency is expected to be the center, which will oversee the process and sets the standards of e-governance,“ Mrs. Buchvarova said.
She answered questions from the audience, which concerned legislative changes in “blue cards” which provide the right to work in the EU of third-country nationals, as well as the needs for changes in the education system to create sufficient and qualified personnel for ICT industry.
BAIT marks the anniversary also by publishing a special edition – “BAIT 20 years”. It is an exciting story about the development of the Bulgarian ICT industry through the eyes of all nine former Chairs of the Managing Board. The book includes information in chronological order on the main topics on which BAIT has worked over the years and has defended the interests of its members and the ICT industry in general. Emblematic projects such as BAIT Expo, “PC At Home”, BAIT Awards and EU projects as eSkills for Jobs, Watify – fostering digital entrepreneurship and The National Technology Transfer Office in the area of information and communication technology (TTO-ICT).
The book “BAIT 20 years” in Bulgarian can be seen and saved in the attached file below. English version is coming soon.