Bulgaria Functional and Governance Analysis
Bulgaria exhibits one of the lowest innovation performances in Europe, driven by very low levels of research investment compared to peers. This slow growth will likely be exacerbated by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and ensuing economic crisi...
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Sofia
2021
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/116171619081557906/Bulgaria-Functional-and-Governance-Analysis http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35508 |
| Summary: | Bulgaria exhibits one of the lowest
innovation performances in Europe, driven by very low levels
of research investment compared to peers. This slow growth
will likely be exacerbated by the Coronavirus (COVID-19)
pandemic and ensuing economic crisis, which have
disproportionately affected Bulgaria’s smaller and younger
firms, a typically the firms with the highest potential for
productivity growth. Moreover, a rapidly aging population
and high emigration rates raise the potential for increasing
labor shortages and skills mismatches over the medium term.
Accelerating productivity growth will require large
improvements to the country’s science, technology, and
innovation (STI) performance, which currently ranks among
the weakest in the EU across multiple indicators. There is a
clear need to modernize the national research system
particularly in the public sector to improve the performance
of research institutions, with a focus on research
excellence, market-oriented research agendas, and technology
transfer. The goal of this report is to provide in-depth
assessments of the functionality and governance of key
Bulgarian STI support instruments and to provide
recommendations for improvement of the government’s current
and future portfolio of STI support programs. The work
represents the second phase of the World Bank’s Bulgaria
Public Expenditure Review for Science, Technology, and
Innovation (PER STI) project. |
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