Southeast Europe Digital Infrastructure Projects will be eligible for EU funding after 2020. This was announced by the Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Rosen Zhelyazkov at a forum dedicated to innovation in the InnoStart Forum 2019. The event is organized by the American Chamber of Commerce.
"One of the key projects that can be supported is to ensure the connectivity of the Serbia-Bulgaria-Greece highway, which will allow the movement of fully autonomous vehicles." The highway is currently ready but the connectivity needs to be built in the context of 5G infrastructure, "the minister explained.
Rossen Jeliazkov recalled that the European Union is planning to allocate EUR 30 million for high-speed internet in the region.
Within the forum, Minister Jeliazkov held bilateral meetings with Serbia's Minister of Innovation and Technological Development Nenad Popovich and with the Minister of Information Society and Administration of Northern Macedonia Damian Manchevski. The talks reviewed the implementation of the Memoranda of Undertaking for the Reduction of International Roaming Tariffs for Telecommunication Services. The ministers stressed that the process, initiated under the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, will bring about a significant reduction in tariffs.
In a journalistic question about the amendments to the Postal Services Act, Minister Jeliazkov said post offices would definitely not be closed if this is the prerequisite for better service or the only way of servicing. Minister Jeliazkov reminded that the network of "Bulgarian Posts" consists of about 3000 post offices and in some large settlements it is not optimal. In its words, its maintenance generates costs, they are borne by the compensation the company receives each year, and it comes from taxes.
The Minister stressed that the idea of the amendments to the law was to create a model that, through the Commission's regulation on communications, sanctioned the optimization of the postal network.
