Sofia City News
Despite the crisis in 2020, Sofia’s economy maintains its competitive advantages. The transformation of the city’s economy will continue to be led by the development of digital services, as information and communication technologies have the prospect of becoming Sofia’s largest economic sector. The three leading sectors in terms of output of non-financial corporations in Sofia in 2021 are trade (21%), construction (19%), and information and communication technologies (15%). The data are from the Institute for Market Economics and are part of our annual report “Sofia Municipality: economic and investment profile”, prepared by the IME on behalf of Invest Sofia. The report is available on our website here.
A pilot project of Sofia Municipality’s “Sandbox for Innovation” initiative was allowed implementation beyond its initial scope. The Kanari air quality monitoring system, piloted in the 76th Kindergarten “Sarnichka”, has attracted the attention of Tryavna Municipality and has already been submitted for testing. Discussions are underway for implementing the system in the building fund for public services managed by Tryavna Municipality. In addition, Bulgaria’s largest mobile operator has expressed its interest in including the Kanari system in its ICT / IoT portfolio. Thus the project will be able to join other municipalities in the country. Requests for testing and implementation of the system have also been made from public and private hospitals. Find out more about the project.
Medical University – Sofia ranks first among Bulgarian universities in the 13th edition of the Spanish research organization SCImago’s International Institutions Ranking. The 2021 ranking includes a total of 4126 universities, assessed by indicators such as active research, innovation, impact on society, and others. Medical University-Sofia ranks 513rd in the world in the overall ranking and is the best represented among Bulgarian universities. It is followed by Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, which is in 524th place. The list includes a total of 13 Bulgarian universities, five of which are in Sofia. Higher education institutions from Varna, Veliko Tarnovo, Ruse, Blagoevgrad, and Plovdiv are also included.
Sofia is 6th in the world and second in Europe in the 2021 City Water Optimization Index, Sofiiska Voda AD have announced in an official statement. The Index is developed by Economist Impact, part of The Economist Group, and covers 47 quantitative and qualitative indicators divided into three categories – reliability, accessibility and sustainability. In the overall ranking, Sofia comes 6th out of all 51 cities. The ranking shows the implementation success of the necessary policies, the built infrastructure, and the measures taken to optimize the use of water resources. It aims to exchange good practices between cities facing different challenges but making progress thanks to working local solutions and policies. With its result, Sofia is ahead of cities such as London and Copenhagen. The full index is available here -https://impact.economist.com/sustainability/project/water-optimisation/ –https://impact.economist.com/sustainability/project/water-optimisation/
