SOFIA (Bulgaria), February 27 (SeeNews) – One region in Bulgaria and three in Romania are among the EU’s worst performers in terms of competitiveness due to their lack of innovation capacity, the European Commission said on Monday upon the release of its latest EU Regional Competitiveness Index (RCI)
In terms of the RCI innovation sub-index, which measures technological readiness and business sophistication, six Romanian and four Bulgarian regions take the bottom ten places, the Commission said in a statement published on its website on Monday.
The RCI, published every three years, is composed of 11 pillars, grouped into three sub-indices, which describe different aspects of competitiveness. The RCI is based on the statistical NUTS 2 classification, which outlines 276 regions in the EU.
In terms of the Basic sub-index, which takes into account macroeconomic stability, infrastructure, institutions, health and basic education, Romania has five regions among the bottom ten, while Bulgaria has one.
No Bulgarian or Romanian regions, however, are among the laggards in terms of efficiency, a sub-index which measures higher education, training and lifelong learning, labour market efficiency and market size.