OREANDA-NEWS. September 19, 2011. At Stenbock House Estonian prime minister Andrus Ansip met with Bulgarian prime minister Boyko Borisov, who is in Estonia on a working visit.

Their talks focused on Estonia’s achievements in the field of information and communication technology and on opportunities to use Estonia’s experience in building up the e-state system in Bulgaria.

Borisov remarked that the Estonian level of e-services is impressive and that one of the goals of his visit is to familiarise himself with the possibilities offered by Estonia’s e-government. Prime Minister Borisov also expressed his wish for concrete cooperation so as to use the basis that is created to find new solutions to build up the e-state.

Prime Minister Ansip welcomed the Bulgarian proposal, agreeing that information and communication technology comprises one of the most promising fields for cooperation. “ICT offers great potential for cooperation,” he said. “Estonia, relying on our long-term experience, can offer Bulgaria assistance in the form of both experts and knowledge.” According to Ansip, Estonia is ready to share its experience of building up the e-state. The prime minister expressed his hope that Estonian IT specialists would make good use of this opportunity.

Today’s meeting also included a discussion of the current economic situation in the European Union and Bulgaria’s aspirations to join the Schengen zone. Ansip and Borisov stressed that Estonia and Bulgaria are united by their desire to keep their national financial systems in good order.

“We both support a conservative budgetary policy,” Ansip said, acknowledging Bulgaria’s preparations to join the Schengen zone. He said that Bulgaria has complied with all of the technical requirements to join the zone.

“Bulgaria has gone to great effort to comply with the Schengen rules,” said Ansip. “I hope their wish to join the zone will soon become reality.”