Bulgarian Organizations Form Digital Industry Association

Representatives of the Bulgarian digital industry (Plamen Rusev is second on the right) with Bulgarian Transport and IT Minister Tsvetkov (second on the left) during a forum in May. Photo by BGNES

Several Bulgarian NGOs on promoting web technologies have come together to form what has been described as informal association of the digital industry.

The participants that signed Thursday a cooperation memorandum include the Webit Ambassadors Program for Central and Eastern Europe, a program of the organizers of the largest e-business expo in Eastern Europe – the Sofia-based Webit; the Bulgarian Advertisers' Association, the Bulgarian National Self-Regulation Council, the Bulgarian Web Association, Interactive Association Bulgaria, and the BG Site Foundation.

The goals of the new informal Bulgarian digital industry association are to represent the Bulgarian digital industry before the relevant Bulgarian, EU, and global institutions; to draft joint positions for the development of the Bulgarian digital market; to defend the interests of the digital business and its consumers.

"This step sets a new beginning in the development of the digital industry in Bulgaria. The changes that the Internet and mobile technologies are bringing to our lives and the way to do business, marketing and advertising should be reflected in the legislation and the regulation mechanism in order to develop the industry and to defend the rights of the consumers," stated Plamen Rusev, Chair of e-Academy, a Sofia-based international education institute, which is the organizer of Webit, e-Business & e-Marketing Expo and Conference for Central and Eastern Europe. The first edition of Webit took place in Sofia in October 2009; the second edition did in October 2010.

In his words, the informal association of the Bulgarian digital industry has a lot of work to do – to come up with suggestions on the implementation of the EU directive for personal data with respect to the use of the Internet; the EU directive for behavior targeted online advertising; the coordination of the ethic self-regulation standards in the field for the benefit of the users, among others.

"All European nations are faced with these challenges today, and in this sense the united digital industry in Bulgaria is a definitive prerequisite for fruitful dialogue with the legislature and the executive as well as with the representatives of consumer organizations," said in turn Dora Vasileva, Chair of the Bulgarian Web Association.

On Wednesday night, the members of the informal digital industry association had their first official meeting with government representatives including the Deputy Minister of Transport and IT Parvan Rusinov, and experts from the Economy Ministry. The association presented to the government its positions on the digital business environment in the country.

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