Business leaders continue to press for national strategy

Initiatives

The Hungarian European Business Council (HEBC), a body of business leaders established by the European Round Table of Industrialists, continued to press for the creation of a tangible country-wide strategy in its annual report released today.

The Council, whose members include the top managers of ABB, AkzoNobel, British Telecom, Ericsson, GDF SUEZ, Henkel Magyarország, Magyar Telekom, Nestle, OMV, Philips, SAP, Shell and Volvo Group Trucks, said such a strategy was necessary to make Hungaryʼs competitiveness sustainable.

"It can clearly be felt and is to be welcomed that the Hungarian Government has strategic plans, but they have not yet been made public and tangible," the members said in the report.

"It is a source of risk if the strategy is built on a single industry sensitive to business cycles, and its other elements depend on decisions of an ad hoc nature influenced by political interests," they added.

The members were unanimous in acknowledging Hungaryʼs improvements in term of macroeconomic indicators, such as GDP, inflation and employment, but they also agreed that "predictability", including the "stability of the legal environment", would further improve the situation.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjártó promised at the presentation of the report, entitled "For a Stronger Hungary in a Stronger Europe", that talks with HEBC members on vocational training would take place soon. Ensuring a pool of trained labour, and adding to their numbers, is important in the race to draw investors to Hungary, he added.

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