1. Measuring the Innovation Potential of the Bulgarian Economy
National Innovation Forum
Sofia, 25 October 2005
Ruslan Stefanov
Economic Program
Center for the Study of Democracy

2. The Process Innovation.bg
The Objective
The Target Group
The Team
Innovation Expert Council
Consulting with various institutions
Value Added

3. Competitive advantages in the Bulgarian import and export (1999 – 2004)
Source: BNB and Applied Research and Communications Fund

4. Иновации.бг Aggregate innovation product
Entrepreneurship and innovation networks
Innovation investments and financing
Human capital for innovations
Information and communication infrastructure

5. Aggregate innovation product
Compared to EU-25 the share of the innovative enterprises in Bulgaria is four times lower
The technological and the scientific product remains relatively higher than the innovation product
Excessive supply
Low demand
Discrepancies between demand and supply

6. Relative share of the innovative enterprises in Bulgaria and EU-15
Source: National Statistical Institute (NSI), 2004, Eurostat, NewCronos, 2001.

7. Innovation activity of the Bulgarian firms
Source: Vitosha Research, 2004

8. Objectives of the innovation activities of innovative companies in Bulgaria (2003) and the EU-15 (2000)
Resource: NSI, Eurostat, NewCronos , 2001

9. Comparing barriers to innovation in Bulgaria (2003) and EU-15 (2000)
Source: NSI 2004, Eurostat, NewCronos 2001.

10. Number of EPO patent applications per million inhabitants in Bulgaria and EU-10
Source: Eurostat, 2005

11. S&E articles from Bulgaria, registered at the Institute of Scientific Information
Source: National Science Foundation, Science & Engineering Indicators, 2004.

12. Relative performance of science systems in EU 8+2 (share of citations in the population)
Source: National Science Foundation, Science & Engineering Indicators, 2004.

13. Entrepreneurship and innovation networks
Low entrepreneurship activity
Market-based, rather than innovation and technological networks
The domestic science and technology system is not efficiently used
Necessity of:
Innovation policy that differentiates the various types of enterprises
Promoting horizontal relations and cluster formation

14. Level of entrepreneurship (number of enterprises per 1000 inhabitants in Bulgaria)
Source: EBRD (2004)

15. SMEs structure dynamics in Bulgaria (1996-2003)
Source: 2001 – 2003, NSI, (2004); 1996 – 2000, Report on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Bulgaria (2003).

16. Partnership typology of the Bulgarian innovative enterprises in the development of innovative products and/or processes in 2003 (%)
Source: Vitosha Research (2004)

17. Share of innovative enterprises in Bulgaria, which have indicated as “very important” to their joint innovation projects the listed partners
Source: Vitosha Research (2004)

18. Innovation investments and financing
Not enough depth in the accumulated fixed capital in the economy – importance of the channels for transfer of foreign innovations
One of the lowest business R&D expenditures in Europe
Considerable structural misbalance: the public sectors dominates, without attracting enough funds
The credits for the private firms has increased 7 times, but their innovative activities are funded by the firm’s own revenues
Relying on market-oriented financing on competitive basis or on EU grants and programs

19. FDI intensity (FDI stock as % of GDP)
Source: UNCTAD (2005).

20. R&D intensity (% of R&D expenditure in GDP)
Source: NSI, Eurostat, 2004.

21. Misbalance: Structure of R&D expenditure by sectors of performance
Source: NSI (2004), Eurostat (2005)

22. Misbalance: Structure of R&D expenditure by sources of funds
Source: NSI, Eurostat, 2004.

23. Main sources of financing of the innovation activity of innovative enterprises in Bulgaria in 2003 (%)
Source: Vitosha Research, 2004

24. Human capital for innovations
Good education level in the secondary and higher education
Decrease in the quality of the secondary education
Institutional variety in the higher education
Lack of life-long learning education
Low business demand of R&D » Employment decrease and smaller interest in scientific career
Public funding for employment in the R&D sector – long-term unstable misbalance
Necessity of comprehensive long-term vision for the education development

25. Falling average performance of Bulgarian 8-graders
Source: IEA, TIMSS

26. Life-long learning (share of population aged 25-64, taking part in education and training)
Source: Eurostat (2004)

27. R&D personnel per 1000 persons of the workforce (1995-2002)
Source: NSI, Eurostat (2004)

28. Information and Communication Infrastructure
Bulgarian firms, which use ICT are more innovative than the rest
The ICT density is constantly increasing and the more effective use of ICT proves to be key issue
The innovation policy should be directed towards the infrastructure and the improvement of the general ICT education level

29. Innovativeness of Bulgarian enterprises by level of ICT use
Source: Vitosha Research, 2004

30. The full text of the report can be found at:
Thank you!
The full text of the report can be found at: