Three ministries are working together to get products from Bulgarian firms to market faster: innovation and digital transformation, defence, and economy, investment and industry. Innovation and digital transformation minister Ivan Vasilev told reporters in Burgas.

The idea is to give firms the conditions to develop their innovations in Bulgaria.

As an example, Vasilev pointed to a drone on show at the forum. An exhibition of drones built by Bulgarian engineers and entrepreneurs opened in Sofia a few weeks ago.

Vasilev said Bulgaria has engineers, entrepreneurs and start-ups that can create defence technology and dual-use products. He said these should find uses in the civilian sector and strengthen the defence capabilities of Bulgaria and Nato.

"Our task is to make it quick, easy and convenient to get funding, so that Bulgarian entrepreneurs can develop their ideas and so that those ideas stay and grow in Bulgaria," Vasilev said.

The minister also spoke about problems with voting machines in the first round of the presidential election. About 30 machines in Bulgaria have had problems on record. His ministry is helping the Central Election Commission (CEC) keep the process of certifying the machines and generating the hash code transparent.

He said he hopes the CEC will be as strict as possible with the contractor.