The main speakers at the World Export Development Forum (WEDF), Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó and Executive Director of the International Trade Centre (ITC) Arancha González, who spoke following the opening address by President of the Republic János Áder at the opening ceremony of the event in Budapest, which is being held in Central Europe for the very first time, stressed the important economic role played by small and medium-sized enterprises.

Mr. Szijjártó confirmed that one of the Government’s goals is to radically increase the weight of small and medium-sized enterprises in exports. “For this reason, the Government is facilitating an increase in these companies’ competitiveness, as well as providing support to enable these enterprises to be included in the supply networks of large, multinational companies”, he said.

“The water economy, agriculture and the pharmaceutical industry are the sectors in which Hungarian enterprises can best compete on foreign markets”, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.

He also pointed out that the Hungarian economy is heavily dependent on foreign trade, with a current export-to-GDP ratio of over 90 percent.

Executive Director of the International Trade Centre Arancha González said that in her opinion the more competitive the small and medium-sized enterprises in a country, the greater the potential for economic growth. These companies must be assisted in this process, which can primarily be achieved through reducing bureaucracy, developing logistics and enabling access to working capital.

Smaller businesses must also be helped to recognise and understand what products are in demand on international markets, the Executive Director noted.

“Countries are in tough competition with each other with regard to both exports and investments”, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade underlined. Hungary has entered this competition by providing Europe’s lowest rate of corporation and personal income tax, and by supporting international enterprises that would like to invest here and companies that would like to market their products abroad”, he added.

Mr. Szijjártó also spoke about the fact that a few years ago “Hungary was part of the problem in the EU, it had unbelievable economic indices and was under the guardianship of the IMF”, but that this situation had been successfully turned around through courageous and non-conventional measures that were to a great extent based on available export opportunities. “Hungary’s post-2010 policies have proven that it is possible to improve fiscal discipline while at the same time improving economic growth, thus disproving the economic dogma according to which one must choose between the two”, the Minister emphasised.

“Hungary is heavily integrated into the European Union and conducts 78 percent of its foreign trade with countries from the community, including 27 percent with Germany, which provides the backbone of the European economy”, Mr. Szijjártó pointed out.

“Trade between Germany and the four countries of Central Europe is greater than the flow of goods between Germany and France”, he added.

“The success of the European Union is vital to Hungary, and this is one of the reasons why we would like negotiations on fee trade agreements to be accelerated, because without these agreements it is impossible to regain the community’s lost competitiveness”, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in summary, also refereeing to the fact that it has been six years wince the EU successfully concluded a free trade agreement.

In her lecture, Arancha González noted that there is currently a lack of faith with relation to free trade, and people have a tendency to forget that trade has fundamentally contributed to prosperity, and encourages innovation, for instance. “Free markets have facilitated growth, and the ratio of people living in extreme poverty around the world is now lower than ever before”, the ITC Executive Director added.

“Although trade is to our benefit, many do not enjoy its advantages”, the Executive Director noted, referring to the fact that for instance those who are only capable of exporting unprocessed products are at a relative disadvantage. “Instead of closing markets, we must place trade in the service of sustainable prosperity”, she added.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)