Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

Fifty-eight schools in the remote areas of the country will be connected to the network for high speed internet. This was announced by  the Deputy Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Valery Borissov at a joint press conference with the Minister of Education and Science Professor Todor Tanev.

The broadband infrastructure is being constructed under the project of the Executive Agency "Electronic Communication Networks and Information Systems" (ECNIS) financed under the Operational Programme "Regional Development”.

"This way we will make a big step towards the overcoming of the digital divide”, said Deputy Minister Valery Borisov. He added that Bulgaria is among the top ten countries in the world with the fastest Internet in the big cities. In his words, even though 70 percent of the population is living there, we can not abandon our fellow citizens in the smaller communities. Valery Borissov underlined that with the inclusion of the schools to the network for high speed internet will be given a definite push to e-education.

Within the framework of the joint initiative of EA ECNIS and the Ministry of Education and Science the universities and the regional inspectorates are connecting to the Integrated Electronic Communications network of the State. On this occasion, the Deputy Minister commented that universities will become a part of the global network of interaction and will exchange scientific achievements, since they will have access to high speed Internet. During this year the universities which are connected to the network in Sofia, Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Varna, Shumen, Veliko Tarnovo and Pleven will get even faster access to the limitless information resources of the Internet.

The press conference was also attended by the Director of the Executive Agency "Electronic Communication Networks and Information Systems" Krassimir Simonski.