The first 24-hour Balkan Hackathon, with the participation of nine countries, began.

This week Sofia is really the digital centre of Europe. The Digital Assembly began on Monday, yesterday we launched the 10th anniversary edition of WEBIT Festival, which attracted more than 7,000 participants from all over the world, and today begins the first 24-hour Balkan Hackathon. This was said by the Mayor of Sofia, Yordanka Fandakova, who together with the Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, Maria Gabriel, opened the Balkan Hackathon.

Mayor Fandakova thanked Commissioner Gabriel for the good cooperation in organizing these events. Just one month after the EU-Western Balkans Summit in Sofia and the Bulgarian Presidency of the European Union, the Balkan Hackathon is held in Sofia.

According to Yordanka Fandakova, the young and educated people are the greatest wealth of Sofia. “I believe that we owe the development of the city to the ideas of the young, creative people. That is why we invest heavily in young people and their opportunities to create”, said Fandakova.

We work for the development of Sofia as a smart city. Today, Sofia welcomes the best programmers from nine countries - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Kosovo, Romania, Macedonia, Slovenia, Serbia, Turkey and Bulgaria. Here are students, young people, start-up companies, designers, IT enthusiasts and professionals, who will propose prototype solutions to the challenges of digital Europe and digital connectivity of the Balkans. All of them will contribute to digital connectivity of the Balkans and while the city sleeps at night, the programmers will finalize their projects. They will offer solutions on how to secure a future for Europe in which no citizen will feel isolated and digitally excluded. 

Mayor Fandakova thanked the representatives of the European Commission in Bulgaria, the State Agency for Electronic Governance, Sofia Tech Park, Sofia Development Association and the WEBIT Festival.