INVENTED IN HUNGARY
Photo by EtiAmmos/Shutterstock
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INTRODUCTION HUNGARY HOPING TO CRAFT AN ALGORITHM FOR SUCCESS There has never been much doubt about Hungarian creativity. This is the nation famed for the number of its Noble-prize winners, a country that contributed key brain power to the development of the atomic bomb and helped make Hollywood, whose mathematical and modelling excellence has led international financial services firms to target Budapest for centers of excellence. We debuted this publication last year as” Research & Development.” The change in title to “Invented in Hungary” comes because we think it better reflects the way in which Hungary is trying to market itself today. When Viktor Orbán was returned to power in 2010, with the country badly exposed by its open economy to the 2008 financial crisis and the ongoing fallout from that, the focus
was very clearly on taking a page out of the German playbook and, to put it bluntly, making things. Thus, the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency was charged with bringing not just foreign direct investment to Hungary (the country had long been attracting shared service centers here), but entire factories, and the manufacturing jobs that go with them. They say a week is a long time in politics, which must make a decade an eternity. Certainly, the advance of AI, automation and digitalization, all key elements of Industry 4.0, has moved the employment dial in the 10 years since 2010. The government was smart enough to realize that, increasingly, many of those manufacturing jobs would become redundant. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but certainly in a relatively short period of time.
So the emphasis switched from manufacturing to more highly skilled jobs, so-called value added roles. Made in Hungary became Invented in Hungary. Shared service centers have become business service centers, capable of taking on roles that are increasingly much more complex than answering a phone. The jobs that Hungary wants to attract now must stand the test of time. Circle back to those financial services firms putting research centers here, and you have the ideal career profile. Those same roles also offer Hungary’s young talents, either thinking of moving abroad or already there, an alternative, domestic career path. Hungary says it is committed to spending more as a proportion of its GDP on research and development (although the figure for 2019 was slightly down on 2018). But as one of the experts we interview inside puts it, “Increasing funding amounts is not in itself a solution. We believe that the way to bring domestic R&D to a much higher level in the foreseeable future […] will be through the education system.” That remains the challenge. Money is being made available, strategies are being put in place (the big national approach to artificial intelligence has just been outlined, as we detail in an exclusive interview with Roland Jakab, the head of the AI Coalition), skills are being upped, there is even some evidence of joined up thinking when it comes to policy. The world of research and development and innovation in Hungary is becoming a very exciting space to watch. To make the most of the opportunities of the fourth industrial revolution, all of the above will be needed, along with an education system that promotes and rewards critical, creative thinking among Hungary’s digital natives. Robin Marshall Editor-in-chief Budapest Business Journal
