Can Bulgaria Attain Israel's 'Power to Astonish' in Reseach and Innovation?

Last year's Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum placed Bulgaria 54th. Compared to countries roughly the same size (in terms of population) as Israel for instance, this is not quite an optimistic result, given that Israel came 27th in the ranking.

But Bulgaria's latest record is also up for a third year in a row, and if combined with its position as Europe's third most preferred outsourcing destination, could also be looked on the positive side. At least this is what some of the participants in a Bulgarian-Israeli innovation forum held Wednesday in Sofia believe.

In the Footsteps of the Israeli Model for Innovation

That was also what Anne-Marie Vilamovska, the Secretary for Healthcare Policy and Innovation Policy to Bulgarian President Rose Plevneliev, told guests during the conference's opening. Pointing to the country's achievements, she said the cooperation between Bulgaria and Israel should contribute to the process of building up innovation capacity, a goal to which authorities should aspire.

"I hope that Israel will extend a hand to Bulgaria in two fields, education and high technology," Education Minister Todor Tanev said for his part, adding his team at the ministry, which took over in November, "does not distinguish between education and science".

Tanev expressed his hope that Bulgaria could make use of Israeli know-how to create "clusters between Bulgarian industry members, scientists [and students].

"We are witnessing a huge desire within the government to pursue innovation and adopt startup culture," the Israeli Ambassador to Bulgaria, noted H.E. Shaul Kamisa Raz, whose embassy co-organized the forum titled In the Footsteps of the Israeli Model for Innovation alongside...