February 22 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's software industry recorded a 10% year-on-year rise in revenue in 2020 when the country's economy contracted by more than 5% due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Bulgarian Association of Software Companies (BASSCOM) said.
"At the moment, there is a surge in demand and the so-called second wave of digital transformation, which influences the sector and supports the digitalisation of the overall industry," BASSCOM management board member Krum Hadzhigeorgiev said in an audio file published on the website of public broadcaster BNR last week.
As of 2020, there were over 38,000 people working in the sector, with up to 4,000 new jobs opening every year.
Hadzhigeorgiev quoted figures from the association's latest study on the development of the software sector in Bulgaria which comprises data about 4,400 companies.
In the next five years, some 23,000 new jobs will be created in the software industry in Bulgaria, Hadzhigeorgiev noted, adding that about 85% of the sector operates in Sofia.
According to data from BASSCOM's study, the software industry in Bulgaria generated some 4.3 billion levs ($2.7 billion/2.2 billion euro) in revenues last year and is estimated to have contributed 3.8% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020, up from 3.3% in 2019. The sector is forecast to account for 6% of GDP in 2024, the study showed.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)