Ian Stewart: Bulgaria Has No Reason to Lack Self-confidence

Novinite Insider » INTERVIEW | November 22, 2002, Friday // 00:00
Ian Stewart: Bulgaria Has No Reason to Lack Self-confidence

Ian Stewart took up the post Director of British Council Bulgaria on 19 August, 2002. Mr. Stewart has an MA in Geography and M.SC in Applied Linguistics (Edinburgh); Postgraduate Certificate in TEFL (University of Wales in Bangor). He was first contracted by the British Council in1969 as teacher and lecturer in Finland, Portugal, Iran and Sudan. He joined the Council full time in 1978. Since then he has had teaching and managerial posts in Finland, Morocco, Thailand; as well as in London (Regional Language Officer for Europe, then for the Middle East Assistant) and Manchester (Director English Language Division responsible for exams and relations with UK language schools). Before Sofia, Ian Stewart was former director in Croatia, the Baltic States and Yugoslavia, where he was Acting Director.

Mr. Stewart met Milena Hristova, Editor of Novinite.com and The News

Q: What were you expectations before coming to Bulgaria? What surprised you most here?

A: The British Council works very much in country teams. Over the last ten years I have been in many meetings with my predecessors David Stokes and Kevin Lewis. We worked together on projects and when I came to Bulgaria I already knew quite a bit about the British Council work here, the problems they have been facing over the years, and the fact that they enjoyed it so much. The actual area was not a new one, as I had been working in the region - Croatia, the Baltic States and Yugoslavia. In fact I wanted to come to Bulgaria because I wanted to stay in this region and carry on the work that the British Council has been doing in other countries in the region.

Surprises ranged from trivial to more fundamental. The most trivial, but quite pleasant surprise was that I did not realize Bulgaria had such good quality white wine. I don't understand why the export of Bulgarian wine to the UK is not stronger. If the economics of the business could be got right there is a tremendous potential for marketing Bulgarian wines into Europe.

I had not realized before I came how much interest there is in UK in Bulgaria and how many Bulgarians live in UK. At my meeting with the Ambassador in London he told me abut the Bulgarian community in the UK. These people are residents in UK, but retain strong links with Bulgaria. Another positive surprise was the scenery. I come from Scotland and I am very keen on mountains. I knew there were mountains in Bulgaria, but I did not realize how beautiful the whole country was.

There were two "less positive" surprises. I had expected there to be more momentum for change in Bulgaria than I feel. I spent five years in the Baltic States, Estonia in particular but also Latvia really changed while I was there. They are very focused on where they are going, on change, development, privatization process and everything seems to be going well. I know it is going here as well but I don't sense the same speed, momentum, drive. What I also sense is a certain lack of self-confidence. One of the projects we have at the British Council concerns the question of "Branding Bulgaria". We try to get Bulgarians themselves define the messages that they want to give out to the world. Bulgaria has no reason to lack self-confidence, since there is a huge amount of positive potential in Bulgaria.

Q: The work of any British Council office is designed for the country concerned. What do you think is the particular feature of the office in Bulgaria? What will be your priorities?

A: One of the things I am very pleased about is that we have another office in Varna. I think that the focus on the Black Sea side is very much different from the focus on Sofia, the continental side of Bulgaria. It is important to reflect those two differences. Potentially considerable development can take place along the Black Sea coast, not just in tourism. I hope that over the next few years we will develop that office more.

One of the good things about working in the British Council is that it is a learning organization. We have had to change throughout our time and try to anticipate changes. We have a memorandum of understanding with the World Bank. One of the issues in the World Bank is the question of knowledge societies. The British Council has got an enormous part to play in working with partners, developing projects that help spread the idea of the knowledge society in Bulgaria. The British and the UK have undergone so much change in the last twenty years in the education, health and knowledge systems that there are lessons to be learnt. I want the British Council to be ahead of the wave not following. In the next few years I want to invest quite a lot in technical developments, virtual presence, working with those in Bulgaria who are spreading Internet access. We want our Web services to be much more interactive, so that people anywhere in Bulgaria can actually interact with people. Bulgaria has a very high reputation in Europe for providing software, but the paradox is that it also has one of the lowest Internet connection rates in Europe. In my opinion over the next three or five years it is going to increase dramatically. In this case an organization like mine needs to be there ahead of the game, not behind.

Another area to mention is the question of regional cooperation. British Council is developing networks both within a country and between countries. Over the next five or six years the border of the EU is going to come close but not quite to Bulgaria and Romania. British Council offices in Southeast Europe try to help increase the dialogue between the countries, to give a much stronger voice to the area in terms of its discussion with the European Union. The reputation of Southeast Europe is not very good, an area of people fighting each other rather than talking to each other. An area that we can develop is in terms of our virtual connectivity. We are going to set up a knowledge and learning center in Sofia that will allow groups of people to get together and talk.

Q: How are you going to ensure that you work constructively not only in the centers in Sofia and Varna but throughout the country?

A: One of the ways will be through our Web presence and the Internet. We have buildings in Sofia and Varna, but we have projects throughout the country, and that will continue. The work we do in education and governance covers the entire country. Through electronic means we can increase the awareness of the British Council, the United Kingdom and the European Union.

Q: Bulgaria was extended an invitation to join NATO on November 21 in Prague. How ill Bulgaria's future accession to NATO and EU reflect on the projects undertaken by British Council Bulgaria? Tells us more about the PEP project in Bulgaria.

A: The Peacekeeping English Project (PEP) is funded jointly by the British Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence. It is now in over twenty countries in Central and Eastern Europe. There is an (apocryphal) anecdote that tells the point. When it was suggested that Hungary might join NATO, a delegation from Budapest went to Brussels with a shopping list for guns, tanks. They were told to go away and learn English, because without communication everything else would not be possible. In Bulgaria we are working through locally engaged teachers with all the armed services in Bulgaria, setting up systems, standards through testing and evaluation systems. These are NATO standards for linguistic competence particularly amongst officers. Thus they can work with their colleagues in other NATO countries, either on peacekeeping missions or in other joint events.

The Peacekeeping English Project has been up and running in Bulgaria for over three and a half years and will continue at least for another three. The project is particularly successful in Bulgaria and the response in the Bulgarian armed forces is positive. The British Council is not a political organization. What we can do is work on areas of professional standards, professional qualifications, try to help people who wish to be helped in developing standards. Questions of e-governance, the role of the citizen in a society are issues in which the British Council can engage in a non-political way. The British Council can increase the flow of information not only about the EU but why Bulgaria has to make the changes.

Q: British Council has a new logo (it uses a symbol - four dots - which represents both the four devolved UK countries and people coming together for cultural exchange). What was the reason for changing the old one?

A: There was one very good technical reason for changing the old one. The old one was created in 1984 and it was so complex from a computer memory point of view that it was holding back developments in our Web pages. So we had to make it simpler and more use friendly for computer based systems.

Q: How do you assess the interest of Bulgarians in the work of British Council Bulgaria?

A: One of the problems about the British Council is that it is a very complex organization. People generally see what they use and do not know what else is on offer. It is our job to try to increase that knowledge. Many Bulgarians come to learn English here, others see it as a library. Not many know about the huge range of projects that we do. We would like to develop our relationship with the public that says the British Council is only a means to an end, not an end in itself. We see the concept of mutuality as extremely important. We do not want to be regarded as a propaganda machine. We want to work in genuine partnership with Bulgarian organizations and people and increase awareness of Bulgaria in the UK. We are definitely pushing an open door in Bulgaria, since the potential for greater cooperation in cultural, educational and scientific area is considerable.

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