Bulgaria Ranks on one of the Last Places for Innovations in EU
Bulgaria and Romania are the two countries in the European Union, defined as "modest innovators," a report by the European Commission showed. According to it, Bulgaria has improved its achievements compared to the previous seven years. A sharp decline has been observed from 2011 to 2012, and an improvement has begun.
In its report, EU countries are divided into four groups: leading innovators, strong, moderate and modest innovators.
Bulgaria is a Modest Innovator. Over time, performance has increased relative to that of the EU in 2011.
Employment impacts and Intellectual assets are the strongest innovation dimensions. Employment fast-growing enterprises of innovative sectors, Design applications, and Trademark applications, score relatively high above the EU average. Finance and support, Attractive research systems and Innovators, are the weakest innovation dimensions. Bulgaria’s lowest indicator scores are on R&D expenditure in the public sector, Most cited publications, and Lifelong learning.
Bulgaria’s GDP per capita, the employment share of high and medium high-tech manufacturing, the turnover share of large enterprises, and top R&D spending enterprises per 10 million population are well below the EU average. Average annual GDP growth, the turnover share of SMEs, and enterprise births are well above the EU average.
In Bulgaria, the employment rate in the manufacturing sector is 19.5% (against 15.5% in the EU). However, employment in high-tech manufacturing enterprises in total manufacturing employment in Bulgaria is 19.9%, while in the EU 37.5%.
In the services sector employment was 41.6 percent (41.8 percent in the EU), but employment in the services associated with a high level of knowledge was 27.6% of total employment in the sector (at 35% in the EU).
On the "Ease of starting a business" benchmark, where 100 points are the best score, Bulgaria receives 71.4 (compared to 76.8 in the EU). Under "Basic-school entrepren. education and training” (1 to 5 best), Bulgaria has 1.8 points (1.9 in the EU). Under "Rule of Law," where the scale ranges from -2.5 to 2.5 points, Bulgaria received -0.1 (1.2 in the EU).
The population of the country continues to decline - an average of 0.7% per year, compared to an average of 0.2% growth in the EU. The average annual GDP growth in Bulgaria is 3.5% and in the EU 2.2%. By regions in Bulgaria, the Southwest is best represented, and the lowest is the South-East and the Northwest.
Bulgaria is in the group of countries where the performance in the period 2011 to 2018 improved between 0 and 5 percentage points.
Compared to last year, innovation performance improved for 24 EU countries and the growth rate of lower-performing countries compared to higher-performing countries has accelerated. Since 2011, the EU's average innovation performance has increased by 8.8 percentage points.
The EU’s performance has surpassed the United States for the first time and has a considerable lead over Brazil, India, Russia, and South Africa. However, China is catching up at 3 times the EU's innovation performance growth rate and Canada, Australia, Japan, maintain a performance lead over the EU.
Within the EU, innovation performance increased in 25 countries since 2011. Sweden is the 2019 EU innovation leader, followed by Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands. Lithuania, Greece, Latvia, Malta, the United Kingdom, Estonia, and the Netherlands are the fastest growing innovators.
Sweden is the EU’s innovation leader.
Data and pictures are originally published on www.ec.europa.eu
