BULGARIA AND ROMANIA ON THE WAY TO KNOWLEDGE-BASED ECONOMY.

Development of modern economies is marked by the progress of knowledge, information and technologies. All countries to one extent or another are influenced by these objective processes. Based on a comparative analysis the paper examines the achievements of Bulgaria and Romania in this regard. The study ranges a few main directions of the knowledge-based economy, developed by The World Bank - institutional regime, education, innovations, information and communication technologies. Supported by these four "pillars", the analysis presents the state of the two economies, their positioning in the European and global scale. It reveals the similarities and differences between them. It outlines their strong and weak sides, the difficulties, and draws out the possible actions for their solving concerning realization of the relevant national goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]