ICT Sector in Bulgaria is The Best Performing Industry – 600% Income Growth for 10 Years
After ten years of EU membership software business in Bulgaria is the best performing sector of the ICT industry in this country, Bulgarian National Radio reported. Data comes from the independent consulting company CBN Pannoff, Stoytcheff& Co. that has been analysing ICT markets and businesses in the country for 26 years.
Total incomes in 2016 reached 1 billion and 20 million euros. This is over 600% growth compared to 139.4 million euro in 2006. That means that 10 years after the entry of Bulgaria into the European Union the software industry has established a firm place in the Bulgarian economy and continues its stable development. If the pace of revenue growth remains unchanged, in 2021 it would reach 4.5% of GDP, which would have ranked the ICT industry among the largest in the country.
Almost 20 000 people occupy ICT positions today compared to 5 000 in 2016, which is 300% growth. Over 90% are young professionals up to 35 years of age, one third of all IT specialists are women. The sector employs some of the most highly-skilled and well-paid professionals in Bulgaria. The annual survey of the Bulgarian Association of Software Companies (BASCOM) shows that the average wage in the sector is four times higher than the country average. Programmers and Project Managers standard is similar to experts working in countries like the UK, for example. However, companies state shortage of ICT specialists and this is slowing down the potential growth in the sector.
(Original article: www.bnr.bg)
The positive figures for dynamic growth in the sector were also presented at the European Forum “Entrepreneurship for Growth” which was held in Sofia on February 23 and continued with a series of business meetings throughout the country. At the meeting in the capital Mayor
Yordanka Fandakova said that Sofia is developing as one of the European capitals with the highest growth of startups in the IT sector. Fandakova pointed out that Sofia ranks 10th in terms of startup companies and 3rd in terms of established companies, with 90% of them being in the ICT field.
