SOFIA, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- The expansion of digitization in the economy and the public sector increased the risk of digital marginalization of some parts of the society, Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev said here on Tuesday.
Digitization was the backbone of the process of improving the competitiveness of the Bulgarian economy, Donchev said at a conference.
There was no question that the state should facilitate this process, including by giving examples to others, he said. In this sense, the expansion of electronic public services was a strong incentive for a more rapid digitalization of all economic operators on the market, Donchev said.
It could even be discussed whether the state should be more radical, and to provide some services only electronically, he said.
"It is, of course, easy to say when thinking about those who have the potential to digitize, but it is difficult for those who are permanently marginalized digitally," he said.
It was a fact that a significant part of the Bulgarian population "is seriously offline," and total digitalization would leave these people "practically without access to information and without access to public services," Donchev said.
Accelerating and deepening digitization processes in the economically active part of society has increased the risk of digital marginalization of the rest of society, he said. Some would become more marginalized than those who were currently unable to read or write, he added.
The inclusion of those people who, for one reason or another, cannot be active participants in the digital transformation, should soon be on the agenda, Donchev said.
According to Bulgaria's National Statistical Institute, 63.6 percent of the population aged between 16 and 74 years used the Internet every day or at least once a week in 2018. However, despite the dynamic development of information technologies in the country, 26.7 percent of the people never used the Internet, with the figure standing at 69.1 percent and 40.4 percent in the age groups 65-74 and 55-64 respectively.
