The World Bank has announced its intention to provide analytical and advisory support to the Bulgarian Ministry of eGovernment. This assistance aims to bolster the strategic, organizational, and technical foundations for data governance and data spaces in Bulgaria. The move aligns with Bulgaria's efforts to comply with the European Union's (EU) strategy for data, which seeks to increase the availability of data for economic and societal use while ensuring adherence to European rules regarding privacy, data protection, and competition.
The agreement for Reimbursable Advisory Services for Building a Strategic, Organizational, and Technical Framework for Data Governance and Data Spaces in Bulgaria was signed by Valentin Mundrov, Minister of e-Governmentand Lasse Melgaard, World Bank Resident Representative for Bulgaria, Czechia, and Slovakia.
Data governance and data spaces are key components of the EU Strategy for data. The EU aspires to become a global leader in creating a society and economy driven by data. A 'data space' is defined as a trustworthy environment where high-value data is shared according to common exchange rules, protocols, formats while maintaining maximum security. The goal is to foster innovation and private sector development. The EU's data strategy includes establishing common European data spaces aimed at making high-value datasets across the EU publicly available for free reuse.
In line with this strategy, the EU has announced plans to roll out 14 Common European Data Spaces in sectors such as agriculture, energy, finance, green deal health among others. To reinforce the legal framework that enables data governance and sharing across sectors and Member States, the EU has enacted the Data Governance Act and the Data Act.
"Data is an essential resource for economic growth, competitiveness, innovation, job creation and development," said Lasse Melgaard. He added that knowledge is one of the World Bank’s most valuable resources; they are honored to bring their global expertise to Bulgaria with an aim of building a modern digitally enabled government that leverages new digital technologies to improve efficiency and deliver better services for citizens and businesses.
The World Bank has a longstanding partnership with the Government of Bulgaria on e-Government and digital transformation reforms. Building on this collaboration, a team of World Bank experts will work with the Ministry of e-Government over the next 19 months to establish the strategic, organizational, and technical foundations for data governance and data spaces. This will include conducting an assessment of data governance, data availability, and data quality in public administration; providing recommendations for a National Data Strategy and a National Data Governance Framework in line with relevant EU legislation; and conducting a feasibility assessment of potential dataspaces in strategic sectors in Bulgaria.
Reimbursable Advisory Services are special instruments offered by the World Bank in middle- and high-income countries. Under these programs, the World Bank works with countries at their request, providing advisory services, analytical services, and implementation support. The costs of delivering these advisory services are then reimbursed to the Bank.