Digital Cities Challenge Project Survey to Determine the Level of Digital Maturity of Sofia
In continuation of Sofia’s participation in the Digital Cities Challenge initiative by the European Commission, on 29th and 30th of March, we conducted a series of interviews between the experts working with Sofia on the Digital Cities Challenge project and some of the local stakeholders. The interviews are following a digital survey filled by to over 30 local stakeholders assessing Sofia’s digital maturity and identifying the strong points, as well as the areas that need to be developed.
We would like to thank our local partners they agreed to take part in the questionnaire and those who dedicated their time for an interview during the last two days: Mr. Nikolay Stoynev, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Sofia Municipal Privatization & Investment Agency and Deputy Chairman of Sofia Municipal Council, our colleagues from Sofia Municipality, Project Vision for Sofia, Sofia Tech Park, Scale Focus, Bulpros, Telenor, representatives from the banking sector and academia, and prof. Petko Ruskov, mentor at Junior Achievement Bulgaria and Director at “Technology Entrepreneurship and Innovation in IT Lab” at the Software Engineering department at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”.
The insights received were a valuable step towards creating a digitalization strategy and identifying lighthouse projects.
The European Commission’s Digital Cities Challenge initiative aims to support 15 European cities in initiatives for digital transformation of the urban environment, society, business, entrepreneurial environment, policies, and institutions.
Having already kicked off with eight cities (Sofia being among them), the Digital Cities Challenge has completed its selection process with the addition of seven more cities with the potential to unlock unreleased potential by putting advanced technologies at the service of their citizens.
Alcoy (Spain), Arad (Romania), Grand-Orly Seine Bièvre (France), Guimarães (Portugal), Kavala (Greece), Pori 
(Finland), and Rijeka (Croatia) will join the initiative to receive free coaching and facilitation from high-level experts.
You can see all the participating cities’ profiles on the Digital Cities Challenge website at www.digitallytransformyourregion.eu/challenge-cities.
If you would like to learn more about the project please contact Nadia Soultanova, Head of Business Analysis Department at Sofia Investment Agency by email at nadia.soultanova@investsofia.com.
We will present the findings from the digital maturity assessment during a workshop in Sofia next month and would like to invite interested partners from the private and public sector to take part. The exact date of the workshop to be announced shortly.
