The year 2005 has been the most successful for Bulgarian IT companies, says Zlatko Zlatkov, chairman of the managing board of the Bulgarian Association for Information Technologies (BAIT). Zlatkov also manages leading IT company Comel Soft Multimedia, Ltd., which offers wireless networking solutions and computer-based surveillance systems, among other products and services. 

The IT business in Bulgaria registered a total of 682 million euro income in 2005, Zlatkov says.

The total incomes of IT companies that are members of BAIT for 2005 reached 681.6 million euro, a 22.4 per cent increase compared to 2004. There were 1000 companies working in Bulgaria’s IT sector in 2005, according to data from CBN - Pannoff, Stoytcheff & Co, an independent research and analysis agency used by BAIT.  The exact number in the database of CBN-VIP Business™ Bulgaria, created and updated since 1992, is 907 IT Bulgarian companies, showing that the country has developed as an IT-friendly environment. However, Zlatkov says that there are about 100 small- and medium-sized IT companies working outside Sofia, which do not like to give publicity to their activities.

“Such companies usually work in the field of outsourcing, software companies and companies providing system integrating services for the home and small office,” Zlatkov says.

The ratio of IT companies' income to gross domestic product (GDP) of Bulgaria is 3.18 per cent, compared to 2.87 the previous year. The absolute growth of IT companies’ income considerably outruns the growth of Bulgaria’s GDP, 22.4 per cent and 10.4 per cent respectively.

 “It is very important to clarify that incomes in IT companies have been soaring in the last two years, by more than 100 million euro annually,” Zlatkov says. “If these rates continue, it is highly probable that in 2007, the year when Bulgaria is scheduled to join the European Union, the income of Bulgaria’s IT sector would exceed 1 billion euro,” he says.  

Asked what the state could do for the development of the IT sector in Bulgaria, Zlatkov says that stimulating the purchase of home PCs, creating more opportunities for Internet access and improving the quality of IT education would be good choices. Changes in the procedures for public tenders were a must, according to Zlatkov.

Initially established by seven IT companies in 1995, BAIT today unites a total of 168 IT companies, with the list growing every month. Among BAIT's main activities in Bulgaria is the organisation of the biggest specialist exhibitions of information and communication technologies in Bulgaria, BAIT Expo, where all the latest IT solutions are gathered under one roof and companies, partners and customers exchange their views on the IT sector and business.

This year the 11th BAIT Expo 2006 is scheduled to be held at Sofia’s Inter Expo Centre from Oct. 31 to Nov. 5.