The national domain .бг in Cyrillic approved by ICANN

The national domain .бг in Cyrillic was approved by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, ICANN. A report has been prepared within the process of registration of national domains with alphabets different from the Latin, and it specifies that the combination of letters that will symbolize Bulgaria on the Internet, namely .бг, does not look like any other existing domain.

The topic of the .бг domain was brought up during the talks with the international organization when ICANN President Fadi Chehadé visited Bulgaria in August. Back then he held a meeting with Minister Angelkova when the issue with the Bulgarian application was discussed. They also discussed the opportunities for closer cooperation and as a result an Agreement for Cooperation between MTITC and ICANN was signed today. The document sets the common activities in the development of Internet names in Europe as well as training of Bulgarian Internet management experts. Fadi Chehadé commented on the signed document: “This partnership acknowledges ICANN’s mission and shows the support for participation of all stakeholders in Internet management. We look forward to continue our cooperation with Bulgaria in the field of Internet policies”.

Five years after the filed application, ICANN approved the registration of the .бг domain. The next step is to receive notification from ICANN on its readiness to include it in the domain names system. In order to use the national address a register of the names in .бг is needed. In the weeks to come the Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications will initiate meetings with all stakeholders – the business, NGOs and academic institutions, so as to discuss the methodology for the selection of an organization to register Internet names in Cyrillic. The register will be appointed by the Bulgarian government following an agreement on the criteria and the selection procedure.