Diplomacy & Trade 2019 August

AUGUST 2019 HUF 1710

GATEWAY TO FREEDOM

EUR 6

HUNGARY’S DECISION 30 YEARS AGO TO OPEN ITS BORDERS TO HUNDREDS OF EAST GERMAN CITIZENS FLEEING TO THE WEST HELPED SHAPE EUROPE’S HISTORY.

SEE ARTICLE on page 24

India

country

FOCUS

While the inflow of Indian foreign direct investment to Hungary has picked up pace in recent years, the presence of Hungarian companies in the world’s 5th largest economy must be enhanced to realise its true potential, Ambassador Kumar Tuhin says in an interview.

The Ambassador considers facilitating the access of Hungarian businesses to the Indian market and helping forge joint partnerships among the key goals of his posting in Budapest. see articles on pages 10-18

Celebrated Currency

The forint, introduced in 1946 to combat the worst hyperinflation the world had seen, turns 73 this month. The Hungarian currency has weathered global and domestic crises as the country’s economy embarked on a convergence path after the regime change in 1990. With Hungary’s EU commitment to join the euro one day, the forint’s days are numbered but its retirement day may be a long way off.

see more on page 19

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­­ contents

Peter Freed PUBLISHER

AND DON’T FORGET

monthly in print - daily on the web

www.dteurope.com

Marriott plans to boost its presence in Hungary and eastern Europe

to reap the benefits of the boom in tourism

05 ON THE RECORD 06-07 COMPANY BRIEFS 08 ANALYSIS

The September issue of Diplomacy&Trade will explore the ties between Hungary and The Netherlands, featuring articles on the most important economic, cultural and historical aspects of the relationship between the two countries. The Dutch country focus is also designed to mark the 100-year anniversary of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. The Netherlands is a key business partner for Hungary and the presence of Dutch companies in the country helps boost domestic economic performance. The number and volume of Dutch investments have increased significantly since Hungary’s 2004 accession to the EU. Currently there are more than 900 Dutch ventures in Hungary. The country focus will feature an in-depth interview with René van Hell, Ambassador of The Netherlands to Hungary, on economic ties, the need to confront issues like labor shortage or climate change, and the importance of building a circular economy.

com, HDFMC/Flora Anosi, Károly Árvai/kormany.hu, AUDI Hungaria Zrt., Krisztián Bódis, Chandan Shah/Cinematic Click, State Department photo by Ron Przysucha, Vanja Cerimagic/www.cerimagic.ba, Amrita Sher-Gil Cultural Center, Shutterstock.com, Kistücsök, turizmusonline.hu, Tamás Lobenwein/Paneuropean Picnic '89 Foundation, György Konkoly-Thege, Attila Németh/US Embassy, koncertpromo.hu, Jewish Cultural Festival, sziget.hu, Live Nation, Párisi Udvar Hotel Budapest, Veritas Winebar, Busakattilafoto, Géza Talabér, MTI Photos: Noémi Bruzák, Tibor Illyés, Tamás Kovács, Boglárka Bodnár, Zoltán Máthé

Copyright 2004-2018 DUAX Kft., all rights reserved | ISSN 1589-8075 This magazine is produced by DUAX Kft. The opinions published in the magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinions of DUAX Kft.

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DUTCH FOCUS – COMING SOON

CONTRIBUTORS: Edith Balázs, Sándor Laczkó, Tamás Magyarics, Réka A. Francisck, Klára Zajos, Anunciada Fernández de Córdova, Bálint Bassola PHOTO CONTRIBUTORS: Tamás Lobenwein/Paneuropean Picnic '89 Foundation (Cover), Depositphotos.com, Ádám Szabó-Jilek, Hakan Akdemir/hakanakdemir.

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page 20

Budapest Marriott Hotel; Dell 22 OUTDOOR DINING Boris Johnson: Miracle-worker or 23 SPORTS medicine-man?

Interview with FE driver Jérôme d’Ambrosio 09 ENVIRONMENT 24 HISTORY Pan-European Picnic Climate change: Time for action; Water Connects 25 CULTURE Yao 26 SOCIETY 10-18 INDIAN FOCUS Interview with the Indian Ambassador to 27 WITTYLEAKS by the Spanish Ambassador Hungary, Kumar Tuhin; Indian Foreign Minister: profile; Tata Services; Indian 28-29 WHAT’S ON businesses in Hungary; Amrita Sher-Gil Concerts, festivals, events and exhibitions in and out of Budapest Cultural Center; Maharaja restaurant 30 HOSPITALITY Párisi Udvar 19 BUSINESS Birthday of the Hungarian forint 31 WINE Eger bottle

PUBLISHER: Peter Freed EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Edith Balázs EDITOR: Sándor Laczkó COPY EDITOR: Joyce Freed PHOTO EDITOR: Dávid Harangozó SALES & MARKETING DIRECTOR: Tamás Varga DISTRIBUTION MANAGER: Tibor Ocsenás ADMINISTRATION: Judit Ludányi ASSISTANT: Ágnes Rapaport

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Yao – A profound road movie in the heart of page 25 Africa starring Omar Sy

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PLEASE CALL TAMÁS VARGA FOR FURTHER INFORMATION +36 209350250 - tvarga@budapestweek.com A U G U S T

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This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Pan-European Picnic, a pivotal event in bringing down the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall.

Diplomacy&Trade’s analysis of the faithful events of 1989 proves that Hungary’s insightful decision to allow hundreds of East German citizens to cross the border into Austria and flee to West Germany was instrumental in changing the history of the continent. Celebrations to be held in the western Hungarian city of Sopron on 19 August will be attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

The election of Boris Johnson as U.K. Prime Minister opens a new chapter in the protracted Brexit process. Our foreign policy analyst argues that Johnson’s political track record and his hardline approach to Brussels is unlikely to yield a magic solution to the Kingdom’s looming divorce from the European bloc.

This month’s country focus features India, which established diplomatic relations with Hungary 70 years ago. Ambassador Kumar Tuhin speaks at length about the need to raise Hungary’s visibility in the Asian country to ensure that Hungarian businesses boost their presence in one of the world’s largest economies. The India focus also includes an overview of Indian investments in Hungary, interviews with executives from the corporate arena and the cultural scene.

The Business section takes a look at the performance of the forint since its introduction as Hungary’s official currency on 1 August 1946. Having weathered domestic and global economic upheavals, the currency has enjoyed relative stability in recent years and economists believe it is set to move on a predictable path over the coming year.

The WittyLeaks section, authored by Spanish Ambassador to Hungary Anunciada Fernández de Córdova, is a humorous rendition of her unplanned sightseeing tour in Budapest and the literary inspiration the country and her stay in Budapest offer to this already published author.

A look at what the future may bring for the U.K. and Europe page 8 under Boris Johnson

DEPOSITPHOTOS.COM, HAKAN AKDEMIR/HAKANAKDEMIR.COM, COURTESY PICTURE

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on the record Development (OECD), the minister told foreign diplomats in Zagreb.

Dr. Gordan Grlić Radman was Croatia’s Ambassador to Hungary from 2012 to 2017, following which he served as ambassador to Germany.

UN STAFF WARDS AGAINST HEALTH EMERGENCIES IN HUNGARY

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has signed an agreement with the Hungarian Defense Forces Medical Center in Budapest to deliver first aid training for United Nations staff based in Hungary. The 100 participants will include mostly fire wardens and administration team members.

The training will cover basic life support know-how and the use of the automated external defibrillator, according to a press release from the organization.

SLOVAK PRESIDENT VISITS HUNGARY

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NOÉMI BRUZÁK/MTI, DÁVID HARANGOZÓ, HDFMC/FLORA ANOSI, TIBOR ILLYÉS/MTI, TAMÁS KOVÁCS/MTI

When Slovakia’s recently elected President Zuzana Čaputová met with her Hungarian counterpart János Áder in the Sándor Palace in Budapest last month, the two politicians agreed that mankind was in the last hour to act on the matter of climate protection. The Hungarian President emphasized that one must act now "above all, so that we do not cause the next generation an insurmountable problem."

The two heads of state were also in agreement regarding the issue of protecting the external borders of Europe and what they claimed was an inadequate and ineligible migration quota.

Zuzana Čaputová said she wished to be the president of all the people in her country, including the 450,000 Slovak citizens who consider themselves Hungarian. In her words, "liberal democracy, which guarantees equality for all, is also the most effective means of protecting minorities."

The Slovak head of state also pointed out that cooperation among the Visegrád Four states would carry more weight if in addition to protecting regional interests, the countries would also stand by values such as the rule of law, democracy and freedom. "They should not be seen as weakening or disrupting the European Union," she said.

In response to a question from the press, President Čaputová said, according to Hungarian state news agency MTI, that reports in the Hungarian media claiming she was an agent of U.S. financier George Soros were lies.

Budapest is home to seven UN agencies and international organizations, which have a headcount of more than 1,100. Among other tasks, they operate projects, and administer human resources and financial processes. Agencies also participating in the training include the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), FAO, the International Labor Organization (ILO), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), UNICEF, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), and the World Health Organization (WHO).

“The safety and security of colleagues is the baseline for quality work.

For us, it ensures that we can deliver our mandate and contribute to a more sustainable and equitable future,” Vladimir Rakhmanin, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Europe and Central Asia said. “We are glad to partner with such a renowned institution to achieve this,” he added.

Nearly 400 university students from eight countries signed up for the Solar Decathlon Europe 2019 contest organized in Szentendre, north of Budapest, to test their skills in building prototype houses designed for the age of renewable energy. Solar Decathlon Europe is an international competition that challenges collegiate teams to design and build houses powered exclusively by renewable energy sources. The aim of the competition is to promote architectural solutions related to solar energy, renewable energies and innovative technologies through the houses built by the university teams.

FORMER AMBASSADOR TO HUNGARY APPOINTED CROATIAN FOREIGN MINISTER

Dr. Gordan Grlić Radman, Croatia’s former Ambassador to Hungary, has been appointed Foreign and European Affairs Minister. Croatia's upcoming presidency of the European Union in the first half of 2020 is one of the top priorities of his country’s diplomacy, along with accession to the Schengen Area, the Eurozone and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and

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STELLAR PERFORMANCE BY HUNGARIAN ATHLETES AT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Hungarian swimmers won five gold medals at the 2019 World Aquatics Championships in Gwangju, South Korea in July.

Katinka Hosszú continued to rule women’s individual medley by winning both the 200- and 400-meter individual events, however the performance of Kristóf Milák caused the biggest sensation. The 19-year-old swimmer broke the world record set by the legendary Michael Phelps and went on to win the men’s 200-meter butterfly race. Boglárka Kapás, Hungary’s Olympic 800-meter freestyle bronze medalist finished first in the women’s 200-meter butterfly event.

INNOVATIVE HOMEBUILDING CONTEST IN SZENTENDRE

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Organized by the Quality Control and Innovation in Building (ÉMI) Nonprofit Llc., in partnership with the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) and the Town of Szentendre, the competition featured ten teams, representing 27 universities from eight countries across 3 continents (Algeria, Belgium, France, Hungary, Spain, The Netherlands, Romania and Thailand). Each team built a sustainable, energy-efficient and affordable house in just two weeks.

The French team ‘habiter 2030’ was selected the winner of the competition with a project aimed at renovating 100-year-old terraced houses in France in a manner that reduces the energy consumption of the buildings while rendering them sustainable and comfortable for the elderly.

The jury evaluated features such as architecture, engineering design and construction, energy efficiency, communication and public awareness, urban integration and added value, innovation and viability, sustainability, comfort, dwelling functionality and energy balance.

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Three-time Olympic champion Hosszú won her 8th and 9th world title, and the ‘Iron Lady’ entered her name in the annals of international swimming history by becoming the first female swimmer to win the same competition discipline five times by coming first in the 400-meter individual medley. Hungary also won a gold medal in openwater swimming as Kristóf Rasovszky crossed the finish line first in the men’s 5-kilometer race.

Hungary hosted the world fencing championship in July and Hungarian fencers finished fourth on the medal table by winning one gold and two silver medals. The world title went to Gergely Siklósi who beat Russia’s Sergey Bida in the men’s individual epée final. In the men’s individual saber final, András Szathmári was defeated by South Korea’s Oh Sang-uk, while the Hungarian saber team also lost to South Korea and thus finished second.

UPCOMING NATIONAL DAYS August 1 Switzerland 6 Bolivia 9 Singapore 14 Pakistan 15 India 15 South Korea 17 Indonesia 20 Hungary 24 Ukraine 25 Uruguay 27 Moldova 29 Slovakia 31 Malaysia September 2 Vietnam 7 Brazil 8 North Macedonia 16 Mexico 18 Chile 21 Malta 21 Armenia 23 Saudi Arabia

National day Independence day Independence day Independence day Independence day National day National day National day Independence day Independence day Independence day National day National day National day Independence day Independence day Independence day National day National day Independence day National day

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­company briefs DEUFOL ESTABLISHES REGIONAL CENTER

Germany-based company Deufol, a market leader in industrial packaging has selected the eastern Hungarian city of Debrecen for its new plant, which will also serve as a strategic center in Southeast Europe. The plant will start operations in spring 2020, creating 120 new jobs through an investment of EUR 21.4 million.

Deufol, which has been on the market since 1979, offers a wide range of packaging solutions, including industrial, promotional and decorative packaging, 'data packaging' (loyalty, gift and promotion cards), as well as other related services, such as customs clearance, supply chain management, and stock and warehouse management software. Deufol has 90 operations centers in 11 countries, currently giving work to more than 2,300 people.

SOUTH KOREAN FIRM SETS UP PLANT IN KOMÁROM

Hungary’s excellent logistics features, favorable economic environment, investor-friendly attitude, combined with the potential of young talents contributed to the decision to establish this European plant in Debrecen, which will be the most modern of its kind, according to the company. The growing number of foreign students in Debrecen is also a testimony to the high standard of tertiary education. The presence of Krones, another German company in Debrecen and an important partner of Deufol, was also a key factor in the positive decision.

German investors, newcomers and old partners with further investments have all played a crucial role in bringing production and creating jobs in Debrecen. As a result of the foreign investments of recent years, as many as 40 German companies operate plants in Debrecen and its surroundings today.

JAPAN’S TORAY EXPANDS PRESENCE IN HUNGARY Japanese firm Toray Industries is boosting its operations in Hungary by investing more than EUR 407 million in the construction of a new plant in Nyergesújfalu, a town on the River Danube, northwest of Budapest. The new unit will manufacture separator films for lithium-ion batteries from the second half of 2021. Toray first came to Hungary in 2014 and purchased a plant in Nyergesújfalu, formerly operated by Zoltek. The latest investment, which will take place in two phases, will increase Toray's worldwide separator film production capacity by 20% and will create 188 new jobs, mostly with high added value. The Hungarian government will contribute HUF 4.7 billion (about EUR 14.5 million) to the project.

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Magyar Telekom, the leading Hungarian telecommunications service provider, has announced that it has signed Heads of Terms with Hungarian company 4iG for the sale of its fullyowned subsidiary T-Systems Hungary, which offers a full range of ICT solutions.

Under the Heads of Terms, 4iG will purchase all the shares of T-Systems by the close of the transaction.

Prior to the transaction being closed, the small and medium-size enterprise sales business of T-Systems will be carved out and will not be part of the deal.

The parties agreed on the purchase price and the main conditions of the transaction, however, the full details of the deal, including the Heads of Terms, will only become binding upon the signing of the final sale and purchase agreement, which is subject to the due diligence of T-Systems and further negotiations between the parties, according to a statement by Magyar Telekom.

The parties will also enter into a long-term partnership agreement, under which T-Systems will continue to sell Magyar Telekom’s telecommunications services in the large enterprise and public segments. Furthermore, the parties have agreed that 4iG will have the right to use the T-Systems brand in Hungary during a three-year period following the closing of the deal.

The finalization and closing of the transaction depend on the due diligence process, the progress of negotiations between the parties, the finalization of the contractual conditions, the signing of the legal documentation, and the receipt of required supervisory approvals. The closing of the transaction is expected to take place in 2019.

Tokyo-based Toray Industries is an integrated group in the chemical industry, active in five major business segments: chemical fibers and textiles, performance chemicals, carbon

fiber composite materials, life sciences, environmental protection and engineering.

Their products are primarily used in the aviation and aerospace industry as well as in the manufacturing of sports goods.

Toray Group increased the capacity of its factories producing separator film in Japan and South Korea last year but owing to the rise in global demand due to the spread of electric cars, the industry requires more of these products. The investment in Nyergesújfalu will help meet this demand and the company will be able to keep production close to the area of use, Akihiro Nikkaku, President of Toray Industries, stated.

For 20 years, Toray has been one of the largest global manufacturers of separator film used in lithium batteries. The film, between 5 and 25 microns thick, separates the anode and the cathode, conducts the electrons, and acts as an insulator in the event of a short circuit.

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T-SYSTEMS HUNGARY TO BE SOLD TO 4iG

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South-Korean company INZI Control will establish its first European production plant in the northwestern Hungarian town of Komárom. The company, which supplies parts for Audi, Volkswagen and Continental, invested close to EUR 46 million in setting up its production unit for battery modules. The investment further strengthens Hungary's position in the manufacturing of next generation electric vehicles (EV), according to a report by the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA). The Hungarian government is contributing some EUR 5 million toward the project.

As a member of INZI Group, INZI Control produces a wide range of automobile spare parts, covering various components for engines, cooling systems, fuel delivery, sensors, chassis parts, antennas and monitor components. Currently, INZI Control has production capacities in South Korea, China, India, Malaysia and the United States.

The Komárom plant will supply the firm’s European customers. “The project will not only strengthen the South Korea-based company's position in the market, but our country will also welcome another significant active manufacturer among its partners in electro-mobility from the Far East. The fact that three of the top five Asian battery manufacturers have chosen Hungary on the continent directs the attention of other industrial stakeholders to our country's potential, leading to additional investments,” the report points out.

In addition to the significant level of government funding and the highly trained workforce, the company’s decision to invest in Komárom was also justified by the region’s favorable location, Cho Yun Hyung, Managing Director of the Hungarian subsidiary said at the time of the announcement.

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c­ ompany briefs COPPER THIN FOIL MANUFACTURER CHOOSES HUNGARY

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KÁROLY ÁRVAI/KORMANY.HU, BMW GROUP, BOGLÁRKA BODNÁR/MTI, AUDI HUNGARIA ZRT., ZOLTÁN MÁTHÉ/MTI

BRIDGESTONE TO TRANSFORM TATABÁNYA PLANT INTO SMART FACTORY Bridgestone EMEA is injecting EUR 36 million into its eight European plants, including the one in Hungary, to transform them into smart factories, the world’s largest tire and rubber company said. Tire production is already digitalized in the company’s Hungarian factory in Tatabánya, west of Budapest, and the entire manufacturing process is to be transformed in the coming period. While retaining the same headcount, Bridgestone expects the new technologies to yield energy savings of about 10% and to boost annual tire production to 7.2 million units by 2021.

This investment follows the success of Bridgestone’s earlier initiatives to digitize the tire production process, by using EXAMATION. EXAMATION is Bridgestone’s AI-based, highproductivity manufacturing technology, which measures and checks the quality parameters of tires at 480 points – collecting 700 MB of data per tire (4 TB per day). The digital machines apply algorithms that check the quality parameters of the tires to improve the evenness of quality by 15%. The deployment of the machines doubled daily tire production to 6,000 units.

Following the digitalization of the plants, data from tire production will be stored, analyzed and used by Bridgestone engineers in Rome and Tokyo to help design new and improved tire models. The new technology is expected to halve the production time of the new models.

BMW GROUP TO START DUAL TRAINING IN DEBRECEN

BMW Group has signed a cooperation agreement with 2 vocational schools in Debrecen, eastern Hungary, to launch a dual vocational training program at the BMW plant in the city from September 2021, based on a model that has already proved successful in Germany. The German company and the Debrecen Vocational Training Center signed the cooperation agreement on July 18, 2019. The five-year program ensures w w w . d t e u r o p e . c o m

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South Korea’s Doosan has laid the foundation stone of its European copper thin foil manufacturing unit in the Tatabánya Industrial Park, west of Budapest. The company will build a new manufacturing plant with a capacity to produce 50,000 tons of red copper foil a year. The investment is part of the EUR 100 million project unveiled in November 2018.

The annual output of the new plant is sufficient for the production of 2.2 million electric car batteries, which could cover European demand for years. Doosan Group, with a tradition of over 120 years, is present in close to 40 countries and employs more than 38,000 people worldwide.

The company's turnover exceeded USD 16 billion in 2018. Doosan products are used in numerous industries ranging from construction to electronics, and with their latest developments they will also supply the automotive industry.

The investment in Hungary reinforces Doosan's electronics branch, which operates in seven countries and employs some 2,000 people. Its most important partners include Apple, Cisco, Facebook, Huawei, Intel, Nokia, Samsung and SK Innovation. The new manufacturing plant may help Doosan become one of the decisive copper foil suppliers on the electric vehicle market in Europe, setting the stage for the company's further expansion in America and China in the future. Three major Asian battery manufacturers decided to bring operations to Hungary in recent years: South-Korea's Samsung SDI, SK Innovation, and the Japanese GS Yuasa set up their European manufacturing hubs here.

– in an innovative educational environment and flexible structure, and by applying quality standards – that trainees are fully prepared to enter the job market as qualified professionals.

Admissions are slated for fall 2019 and the two-year theoretical education will be followed by three years of practical training at the BMW. “Regarding the training and development system of our future employees, we believe in the symbiosis of theoretical and practical education.

I am particularly pleased that we have the opportunity to launch dual vocational training in our new factory in Hungary, with which we can build a number of young careers,” said Michele Melchiorre, director of the BMW plant in Debrecen. The BMW Group operates professional internship programs in four areas in Hungary, including electrical engineering and automation design, mechatronics, automotive mechatronics, and system integration. BMW will cooperate with the partner institutions in developing a detailed curriculum and syllabus for the dual vocational training courses in Debrecen.

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AUDI HUNGARIA UNVEILS MAJOR EXPANSION AT ITS GYŐR PLANT Audi Hungaria will launch a comprehensive development project at its plant in Győr, northwestern Hungary. The company will expand its electronic motor production capacity, the engine development center and the vehicle manufacturing infrastructure. The complex investment program worth EUR 127 million is the first step in Audi’s project aimed at tackling challenges triggered by electro-mobility. The Hungarian government supports the expansion, which will create 250 new jobs, with HUF 6.4 billion in subsidies.

The manufacturing plant in Győr, which supplies engines to Audi and the Volkswagen Group, is one of the largest engine plants in the world. Some of Audi’s most popular models, like the TT, the A3 and the Q3 are also manufactured here. In 2018, the total number of engines manufactured at the Hungarian plant reached nearly two million and 100,000 cars, delivered to 90 countries worldwide, rolled off the Győr production lines. Audi Hungaria, which employs over 14,000 people and works with more than 1,000 domestic suppliers, has long been one of the largest companies in Hungary in terms of revenue and one of the country’s biggest exporters. The decisive part of the transformation project focuses on the expansion of e-motor production at the Győr facility, which has become the hub of e-motor production within the Audi Group. Audi Hungaria has been manufacturing electric drivetrains for the first completely electric model of the brand, the Audi e-tron, since 2018.

POLAND’S LOT TO LAUNCH 5 NEW FLIGHTS FROM BUDAPEST Polish airline LOT will start operating direct flights to Seoul, Prague, Belgrade, Stuttgart and Sofia, Hungarian state news service MTI reported, citing Rafal Milczarski, LOT’s Chief Executive Officer. The new Seoul service, to be operated 3 times a week from 22 September, will be the first direct air connection between Hungary and South Korea, Milczarski said. LOT will fly to Prague and Stuttgart twice every day, except on weekends, to Sofia and Belgrade once a day, seven days a week. Flights to Brussels and Bucharest, initially planned to be launched in September, will be delayed to March 2020 due to a ban on flying Boeing 737 MAX airplanes. The airline is deploying 3 new Embraer E-Jet aircraft in Budapest and will hire 60 pilots and 150 flight attendants.

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analysis

BORIS ’MAGIC’ JOHNSON:

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the unionists in Northern Ireland fear that different treatment of any kind with respect to Northern Ireland would be a step toward the unification of Ireland and therefore, are dead against any such measures. Their bargaining position is strong; without their outside support the Conservative Party is in minority in the British Parliament. As for withholding the ’divorce bill’, the EU has already indicated that it would not start any trade talks with the U.K. until the country pays this sum. Such a scenario would be catastrophic for the British economy as 44% of its foreign trade is with the EU. A No Deal exit and the absence of any trade deal with the EU are likely to increase tariffs stiffly on about a quarter of all British exports, somewhere between one to ten percent on approximately 40% of them and only about a third of British exports would have zero tariffs. Johnson’s references to the 24th Article of the GATT and the WTO rules are unfounded; neither of them can be applied to the British foreign trade problems in case of a No Deal.

MIRACLE-WORKER OR MEDICINE-MAN? THE U.K.'S PROSPECTS UNDER PRIME MINISTER JOHNSON

BY TAMÁS MAGYARICS

A week after Boris Johnson took over as Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, support for the Tories jumped to 32% from the low 20s where it was languishing during the last months of Theresa May’s Premiership. Though Theresa May was seen as a safe pair of hands after the fall of David Cameron, she was anything but an inspiring leader. On the other hand, Boris Johnson has always inspired strong feelings. Some think that he is a modern-day medicine man of sorts peddling snake oil to the unsuspecting public while others believe that his eccentricities and antics are simply a facade hiding a sharp mind and ruthless political ambition. In fact, Boris Johnson has not really been tested in deep waters yet.

Committed sovereignist His career as Mayor of London for two terms followed on the heels of a lackluster performance by the far-left’s Ken Livingstone,

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and Johnson’s successor, Sadiq Khan is not likely to go down in history as a memorable head of the capital, either. His career in journalism revealed more of Boris Johnson’s philosophy than his stint as an MP in the British Parliament or as the Mayor of London. His articles in The Times and The Daily Telegraph put him into the camp of the U.K. Eurosceptics early on. He developed a dislike for Brussels and the federalist ideas championed by EU leaders from Jacques Delors to Jean-Claude Juncker. Johnson is a committed ’sovereignist’, an adherent to the notion of a ’Europe of Nations’ (in this sense a Gaullist, though the former French President’s name is not frequently mentioned in the British Isles for his well-known tense relations with both the U.K. and the U.S. during and after World War II.) During the 2016 referendum campaign on British membership in the European Union, Johnson was arguably the best-known ’face’ in the camp of Brexiteers within the Conservative Party (and outside as well, besides Nigel Farage).

Besides the ‘divorce’ between the EU and the U.K., another ’divorce’ is looming on the horizon, which may be even more painful for the U.K. Former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown raised the specter of Boris Johnson being the last Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Traditionally, Johnson’s party is much more committed to keeping the U.K. together than any other major party (the official name being the Conservative and Unionist Party). However, about two-thirds of the electorate in both Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain within the European Union.

The inevitable hardships and difficulties following even a smooth, negotiated separation from the EU are bound to strengthen the Scottish National Party (SNP), which is practically without competitors in Scotland as even Labour has been almost completely wiped out, not to mention the Tories.

The SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon has been talking about a new independence referendum more and more frequently recently. The potential separation of Scotland from the rest of the U.K. is likely to be even messier than that of the U.K. from the EU. Welsh nationalists (the Plaid Cymru party) have also started to talk about an independent Wales, but its prospects are much more limited than that of Scotland’s. The major sticking point is Northern Ireland: the EU is committed to upholding the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 with its various mechanisms of East-West and North-South cooperation – and, above all, peace on the island.

Boris Johnson’s answers to these problems have consisted mostly of bluffing so far. He has refused to visit European leaders, has had a rather unfriendly meeting with Nicola Sturgeon and has appointed hardline Brexiteers (like Michael Gove and Dominic Raab) to key positions.

Johnson declared the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated by the May Cabinet void because the EU refused to renegotiate it. British Parliament resumes its session in early September; there’ll be practically 30 days to introduce any new agreement and push it through the legislation before October 31st. Given that the parliamentary arithmetic has not changed (and if it does, it will only change for the worse for the ruling party), it would require a major stretch of the imagination to expect that another ’Magic Johnson’ will emerge (with due respect to Earvin Johnson, the former Los Angeles Lakers basketball player).

Shaky arguments The two years that Johnson served in the May-cabinet did not amount to a success story; he was trying to push the Prime Minister to adopt tougher negotiating positions on crucial issues such as the border question between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland; the ’divorce bill’ of some GBP 39 billion; and blackmailing the EU negotiator Michel Barnier with the prospect of a No Deal. During the leadership contest of the Conservative Party, he promised a stronger representation of the Brexiteers’s position and criticized those who had been and continued to be wobbly in the talks with the EU – by implication invoking Margaret Thatcher’s unsentimental approach to Brussels and her fight for every single penny to be returned to Britain. However, his positions seem rather shaky at closer scrutiny.

As for the ’backstop’ which would keep Northern Ireland in the single market and the customs union of the EU, Johnson originally recommended such simple technical solutions as checking goods at the place of origin instead of the border. The problem is not technical but rather political at heart. The A U G U S T

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The other divorce

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environment WATER CONNECTS

BUDAPEST WATER SUMMIT 2019 AIMED AT PREVENTING WATER CRISES

Organized by the Hungarian government and under the patronage of the President of the Republic of Hungary, János Áder, Hungary will host the third international Budapest Water Summit in October 2019 in order to actively contribute to the shaping of global water policy processes.

TIME FOR ACTION

Organized under the motto ‘Preventing water crises’, the event is built around the issues of abundant, scarce and polluted water. Similarly to the Budapest Water Summits held in 2013 and 2016, a water expo will be held within the framework of the 2019 Summit to present the most up-to-date drinking and wastewater management technologies, sustainable, innovative, environment–friendly solutions in the field of drinking water production, water treatment and supply as well as the protection of freshwater resources.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, responsible for the preparation and organization of the event, expects more than 2,000 attendants from countries all over the world, including six heads of state, high-ranking politicians and celebrities like actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Video messages from UN General Secretary António Guterres and actor/environmental activist Leonardo di Caprio also feature on the agenda of the summit.

Past commitments One of the main objectives of the 2016 Summit - where attendees included nine senior representatives of the most important and far-reaching international financial institutions, including the World Bank Group - was to tackle the finance gap in the water sector. Focusing on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Agenda, the Summit also adopted an action plan for measures to be implemented in the following 15 years in order to tackle waterrelated challenges.

The executive document of the 2016 Summit covered six topics: drinking water, sanitation and hygiene, water-use efficiency, integrated water resources management, water quality, and the protection of the environment, addressing all aspects of the water cycle in an integrated and comprehensive manner. The document serves as a guide for the public and private sectors, including governments, and signatories expressed their hope that it would serve as a valuable soft law instrument.

HUNGARIAN PRESIDENT URGES IMMEDIATE MEASURES TO REVERSE CLIMATE CHANGE President János Áder warned that the next several years will be crucial in reversing human-induced damages to the environment and called for action to step up the f ight against global warming.

photos by DÁVID

HARANGOZÓ, DEPOSITPHOTOS.COM

BY BÁLINT BASSOLA

In a lecture given to university alumni groups, the Hungarian President stressed that there is a global scientific consensus that human action has considerably contributed to climate change. He cited as proof the direct and undeniable correlation between the start in the increase of Earth’s temperature and the first industrial revolution when humans began using fossil energy. Áder spoke at an event organized for the alumni groups of the College of Europe (Bruges / Natolin), the Oxford and Cambridge Universities, the Andrássy University and members of the Hungarian Association of British Alumni. The topics focused on climate change, the negative consequences of greenhouse effects and the action that states, companies and individuals should take.

If the world economy is not channeled onto an environment-friendly path, several climate change effects will become irreversible and will render life on Earth unbearable within decades, Áder warned. In the 20th century mankind’s main concern was that fossil fuels would run out before the technology to replace them became available. A few decades later, the main objective should be to keep as much w w w . d t e u r o p e . c o m

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fossil fuel underground as possible. According to the latest scientific findings, using up all the existing fossil reserves would trigger a jump of 8-10 degrees Celsius in global temperature, which could seal the future of humanity. The writing is already on the wall: melting ice caps at the North and South Poles, higher sea levels, deteriorating soil quality and the devastation of coral reefs. The next several years will be crucial in changing the global paradigm. Any wrong decision in this field will likely have a detrimental impact on the following three or four decades. The President highlighted that by international comparison, Hungary had taken significant steps to lower its CO2 emission level, achieving better results than Austria, Germany or The Netherlands. Áder urged international organizations and countries to adopt recommendations and rules that offer incentives to companies and individuals to become 'greener'. Corporations should also shift to more sustainable business models, which may boost costs in the short term but would pay off in the long run.

Every individual has a responsibility to make changes on a personal level, such as using less environmentally damaging transport means or producing considerably less waste.

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A POETRY LOVING MECHANICAL ENGINEER

Ambassador Kumar Tuhin joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1991 and his career has taken him across continents, having served in the Indian Mission in Hong Kong, the Indian Embassy in Beijing, at India’s Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva, the Indian Embassy in Hanoi, the Consulate General of India in San Francisco and as India’s High Commissioner to Namibia. He also worked in the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi.

Ambassador Tuhin was born in the state of Bihar, which he proudly notes is the state where Lord Buddha attained his enlightenment and where one of the most ancient and largest Indian universities was founded, attracting students from China and all over the world to study Buddhism and philosophy. His mother, a professor of economics, was the anchor of the household for a very long time. “All the important decisions in my early life, such as my education, were taken by her. This is a memory that I still cherish together with my brother and my sister, and we still consult her when an important decision needs to be made.” The presence of strong female personalities has been a constant feature of the Ambassador’s life. “In addition to my wife, I have two beautiful daughters, so I continue to receive much appreciated input from ladies.” A mechanical engineer by training, Ambassador Tuhin believes his studies have been instrumental in his current line of work by helping him look at the large picture and have a wider perspective.

“Having studied engineering, I learnt a certain way of processing information, of handling things in an analytical way, and it also sharpened my problem-solving skills,” the Ambassador says. An avid reader, Kumar Tuhin loves the works of Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, whose poetry he believes will remain relevant for generations to come. Although his poems address the socio-economic landscape of India in a radical manner, having earned him the moniker of “rebel poet,” they also give hope and direction to the people. The works of Indian writer Munshi Premchand also take up a prominent place on his bookshelf. ”I admire the sheer volume of literature he has produced and the simplicity of his storytelling, the way he picks ordinary characters from India and turns them into models that readers can easily identify with.”

BIG POTENTIAL FOR ENHANCING INDIA-HUNGARY ECONOMIC COOPERATION The balance of bilateral economic relations has not always been so tilted in the favor of India. Prior to the fall of the Communist regime in Hungary, some 25 IndoHungarian joint ventures were operating in India, mostly in the area of pharmaceuticals and vacuum technology.˙ With the economic liberalization in the wake of the 1989 political changes and the

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While the inflow of Indian foreign direct investment to Hungary has picked up pace in recent years, the presence of Hungarian companies in the world’s 5th largest economy must be enhanced to realise its true potential, Ambassador Kumar Tuhin says in an interview. The Ambassador considers facilitating the access of Hungarian businesses to the Indian market and helping forge joint partnerships among the key goals of his posting in Budapest.

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revamp of the economic models in both countries since 1991, most of these joint ventures have either been terminated or have been indigenised, leaving only a handful of Hungarian companies present in the Indian market. ”Hungarian investments in India are far below their potential,” Ambassador Tuhin tells Diplomacy&Trade in an in-depth interview. ”India is now the 5th largest economy in terms of nominal GDP in the world and given the current growth rate of close to 7%,

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DÁVID HARANGOZÓ

INTERVIEW WITH KUMAR TUHIN, INDIAN AMBASSADOR TO HUNGARY

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indian focus our economy is slated to rise to an even higher ranking. It is self-evident that Hungary should be present on the Indian market to a bigger extent for its own economic benefit. The Indian consumer market is the third largest in the world and some of the related figures are very high.

For long-term economic advantages, it’s very important that Hungarian companies go to India and forge partnerships,” the Ambassador, who has been serving in Budapest since November 2018, says.

visited Hungary last year. And this is only the number of people who came directly to Hungary, but there are probably many more who came to Hungary after visiting other European countries.

The number of visas issued by the Indian Embassy to Hungarians traveling to India is also going up.

I would like to see this number reach a certain threshold, which then would be motivation for direct flight connectivity between India and Hungary,” Ambassador Tuhin notes.

Areas of convergence

This year the world celebrates the 150th birthday of the iconic Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi, who influenced and inspired individuals and world leaders in the fight against inequality and oppression. Ambassador Tuhin believes that the strength of Gandhi’s character is best illustrated by the fact that he believed in certain ideals and was able to make people believe in these same ideals without resorting to violence. “In the early decades of the last century India was under the yoke of colonialism, famines decimated the population, so a lot of people had hard feelings against their colonial masters and oppressors.

Resorting to violence would have been easy and sometimes even justified, but even under those conditions somebody with a strong character decided not to go down that road. We need many more Gandhis in today’s world to restore hope for humanity,” the Ambassador concludes.

The areas of potential co-operation have already been identified by the two countries, the most prominent being water management, which ties in neatly with the priorities of the Indian government. This is a critical sector for India given the size of the country’s population and Hungary's renowned strength in this area.

The two states signed a Memorandum of Understanding in the area of water resource management a few years ago and the Embassy is working to organize a visit by a team of Hungarian officials to India in the last quarter of the year, according to the Ambassador. An Indian delegation is also likely to attend the Budapest Water Summit to be organized on 15-17 October.

Another sector where Hungarian companies could make a meaningful impact in India is that of agricultural products and the processing of agricultural products, the Ambassador says.

“Speaking on the 2019-2020 budget, Prime Minister Modi recently said that the government’s focus is to strengthen the industries and agriculture sector to achieve the vision of a USD 5 trillion economy and mentioned our priority areas including water resources, renewable energy, electric mobility.

There is thus a broad area of convergence where Hungarian companies can work to establish mutually beneficial cooperation with their Indian partners.” The two largest Hungarian businesses with a presence in the Asian country are the pharmaceutical company Gedeon Richter and the oil and gas company Mol.

Eastern Opening

DÁVID HARANGOZÓ

DÁVID HARANGOZÓ, DEPOSITPHOTOS.COM

photo by

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The Hungarian government’s Eastern Opening initiative, which focused on closer trade and economic relations with countries in the East, has had a positive impact on boosting trade and

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Gandhi’s legacy

investment relations with India, Ambassador Tuhin notes. The flow of investments into Hungary from India has been consistently growing in recent years and currently totals close to USD 2 billion, while Indian companies, such as Tata Consultancy Services and Apollo Tyres, employ approximately 10,000 people in Hungary. Trade between the two countries is also on the rise and the overall volume has now moved close to USD 700 million. The continuing trend of foreign investment in Hungary implies that the policies put in place by the government of Hungary are working well. “Issues I see are of the rising wages and labor shortage that is also the result of the very low unemployment rate. As long as the government continues to address these issues there will be scope for Indian companies to keep coming,” according to the Ambassador, who adds that an Indian company in the IT sector is looking at expanding its presence in the country while another firm from the automotive sector is considering a brownfield investment in Hungary.

“I would be a very happy man if I could see two or three very strong partnerships between Hungarian and Indian companies by the time I leave Hungary.”

Increasing Hungary’s visibility

Other examples

India and Hungary, which this year mark the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, have always enjoyed close and friendly relations, the Ambassador says. ”Bilateral ties have been free of any contentious issues and this has further helped the steady growth in our interaction in diverse areas, especially economic, cultural, and people to people contacts.” The Embassy is organizing several events to celebrate the anniversary, which will also add more visibility to bilateral cooperation, Ambassador Tuhin notes, adding that events to celebrate the International Day of Yoga are being held in several Hungarian cities. In addition to Yoga, the events provide an opportunity for the Hungarian public to encounter the music, dance, food and other elements of Indian culture. Other events in the pipeline include an Indian fashion and textiles show and an Indian film festival. With respect to co-operation in the field of education, the number of Indian students coming to Hungary is increasing consistently. Hungary provides 200 scholarships to India per year and the Asian country is very close to fully utilizing this limit.

“We need to do more to increase the visibility of Hungary in India, there is scope for more action.

In terms of tourism, close to 16,000 Indians

The Ambassador stresses that while Hungary’s Eastern Opening was a very timely initiative, “much more can be done with respect to economic relations with India, the current volume gives us no reason to feel relaxed and content.” Kumar Tuhin mentions the example of Poland where the volume of bilateral trade and the investment of Polish companies in India was also much lower a few years ago. “But under the ‘Go India’ initiative of the Polish government a significant rise in both trade volume and Polish investments in India has taken place within a few years,” the Ambassador notes. The central and eastern European region is of outstanding importance for India as these countries are important gateways to the European Union, the Ambassador says, adding that there is some competition among these countries for foreign investments.

FACTS COMPARED AREA country comparison to the world POPULATION country comparison to the world POPULATION GROWTH RATE country comparison to the world BIRTH RATE country comparison to the world LIFE EXPECTANCY AT BIRTH country comparison to the world NET MIGRATION RATE country comparison to the world GDP - PER CAPITA (PPP) country comparison to the world UNEMPLOYMENT RATE country comparison to the world TELEPHONES - MOBILE/CELLULAR country comparison to the world AIRPORTS country comparison to the world

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INDIA

93,028 sq km 111 9,825,704 (July 2018 est.)

92 -0.26% (2018 est.)

214 8.9 births/1,000 population (2018 est.)

206 76.3 years (2018 est.)

88 1.3 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2017 est.)

54 USD 29,600 (2017 est.)

68 4.2% (2017 est.)

54 12,030,940 (2017 est.)

75 41 (2013) 103

3,287,263 sq km 8 1,296,834,042 (July 2018 est.)

2 1.14% (2018 est.)

94 18.7 births/1,000 population (2018 est.)

88 69.1 years 163 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2018 est.)

86 USD 7,200 (2017 est.)

156 8.5% (2017 est.)

122 1,168,902,277 (2017 est.)

2 346 (2013) 21

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indian focus

FORTIFYING INDIA’S GLOBAL INFLUENCE INDIA’S MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS IS A MAN OF THE WORLD

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s recently appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs is hailed as one of the country’s most talented and seasoned diplomats and political experts. Expected to visit Hungary in the near future, his visit will be instrumental in enhancing bilateral ties.

well in the Ministry of External Affairs and the President’s Secretariat, will be one of the point persons in charge of expanding India's global influence, particularly in key multilateral forums like G-20, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS. A major focus of the ministry under his leadership is likely to be on further boosting India's trade and defence ties with the US, Russia, France, Japan and the European Union as well as as with India’s neighbors. Another challenge for him will be to further strengthen India's ties with China.

Getting the long-awaited membership of the UN Security Council and Nuclear Suppliers Group is expected to be another area of interest for the government in Delhi. India has also been trying to enhance ties with the Gulf region as well as the hydrocarbon rich countries of Central Asia, and Jaishankar is set to ensure continuity on this front.

Sharp negotiating tactics Jaishankar, 64, is known for his skillful diplomacy, tough negotiating tactics and strategic vision. A 1977-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, the Minister played a major role during the Doklam stand-off negotiations with China. The 2017 Doklam stand-off was among India and China's worst crises, when Chinese and Indian soldiers were engaged in an eye-to-eye confrontation for over two months.

Jaishankar, who had China expertise thanks to his experience as Delhi's ambassador to Beijing, led the negotiations to resolve the crisis. During the premiership of Manmohan Singh, Jaishankar was involved in negotiating the landmark and controversial Indo-US nuclear deal.

Awarded expert Jaishankar is the son of the late K. Subrahmanyam, one of India's leading strategic analysts. Jaishankar is a graduate of St Stephen's College and has an MA in political Science and an MPhil and PhD in international relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. Married to Kyoko Jaishankar, he has two sons and a daughter. In 2019, Jaishankar was conferred with a Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India.

Exacting tasks The Minister, who also served in other diplomatic assignments at embassies in Moscow, Colombo, Budapest and Tokyo, as

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Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, who retired in January 2018 as foreign secretary of India after serving his term with one year’s extension since January 2015, is widely acknowledged as an astute thinker and an exceptionally talented diplomat who brings domain expertise and years of experience to the table. Before he became foreign secretary, Jaishankar served as India's ambassador to the United States, China and the Czech Republic.

SHAH/CINEMATIC CLICK, STATE DEPARTMENT PHOTO BY RON PRZYSUCHA

U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo at a meeting with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in New Delhi in June 2019.

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SERVING THE GLOBE FROM HUNGARY

THE DIGITAL AGE REQUIRES AGILITY AND TRANSFORMATION

An increasing number of businesses are implementing digital technologies in their daily business processes, driving demand for IT service providers that help their customers to bridge the digital gap, Prabal Datta, Head of Tata’s Global Delivery Center in Hungary says. Companies reluctant to embark on the digital transformation journey risk falling to the wayside.

go away but that is true with any new technology.

It’s a choice we have to make regarding how we deploy the talent available to us. The people who are already in the job market need to learn, the younger generation needs to learn how to learn,” according to Datta. Today’s students must be familiar with more than the technology itself, they have to focus on the processes of computational thinking and data analysis. “Data is the new currency and data literacy will be a vital skill,” Datta says, adding that TCS runs multiple programs to help the education process worldwide.

In the U.S. it launched a program called ‘Ignite my Future,’ a one-of-a-kind initiative transforming the way students learn through computational thinking, involving about 1 million school kids and 20,000 teachers. In Europe, TCS has introduced a threestage talent program designed to help trainees gain insights into IT consultancy career paths. In Hungary, TCS is mentoring a flagship program of training teachers, which has already reached some 600 teachers.

Businesses and change

A worldwide leader in IT services, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) set up its Global Delivery Center in Hungary in 2001, which was the company’s first one outside of India. Aiming to be closer to its customers, TCS has since developed its operations in Budapest as a near-source center, particularly for Europe. TCS unveiled a major expansion of its Hungarian facility in 2017, adding 500 new jobs. “Our business in continental Europe has been growing significantly in the past few years, faster than the global business.

Companies are adopting newer digital technologies and that has created the need for partners who can run the transformation process for them. This was the primary reason for the Budapest expansion and we still see this growth drive continuing,” Datta says. As proof of the supportive industry environment, the headcount in Budapest has more than doubled in the last 4 years and is comprised of more than 80 nationalities. TCS Hungary offers a full range of services from Budapest, including a consultancy-led, integrated portfolio of IT, BPS,

infrastructure, engineering and assurance services.

The Budapest operation “is expanding every year.

We are still to realize the full potential of this country,” Datta says.

Jobs of the future As new technologies like virtual reality, automation and robotics usher in a new era of change, repetitive work processes are being automated at an ever-increasing pace. “That means a certain part of the work will definitely

A TCS study (see box) on companies’ openness to embark on the transformation journey made necessary by the emergence of digital technologies identifies 4 kinds of behavior that are essential for adapting to digital technologies.

The process must involve automation, machine learning and cloud technology, according to Datta. “The more you delay, the more you are going to lose. Many big names, like Blockbuster, that did not see the change coming have fallen victim already. Others will probably share the same faith,” the executive says. TCS invests heavily in training its employees and its partner ecosystem, which includes start-up companies, universities, venture capital firms, and R&D labs. “We also have a 4-behavior system in Hungary within TCS, called CORE. C stands for collaboration, O for openness to change, cultures and learning, R for rigor or responsiveness in addressing the needs of our customers, and E for empathy,” Datta concludes.

WINNING IN A BUSINESS 4.0 WORLD

photos by DÁVID

HARANGOZÓ, KRISZTIÁN BÓDIS

A global survey conducted by TCS (and mentioned above) examined how companies are leveraging disruptive technologies to drive behavioral shifts in the so-called Business 4.0 transformation. The survey found that by implementing digital technologies, organizations are adopting four specific behaviors to deliver better business outcomes.

1. Driving mass personalization – personalizing products and services to a market of one, and at scale 2. Creating exponential value - adopting business models that enable limitless addressable markets and monetizing escalating layers of data 3. Leveraging the ecosystem - collaborating with partners inside and outside the supply chain to create new products and services 4. Embracing risk - moving beyond rigid planning and operational barriers with an agile strategic approach • Organizations that master these behaviors are best positioned to thrive in the waves of disruption and change. Only 9% of leaders adopted all 4 behaviors and 82% adopted at least one behavior.

• Organizations with annual revenue of USD 1 billion or more feature prominently among the leaders. While their larger size makes them less flexible to change, they have greater resources and more experience, thereby able to build new capabilities faster. While banking and financial services as well as telecom lead in the adoption of Business 4.0 principles, retail, CPG and manufacturing are catching up.

• Imbibing agile principles is critical. The agile philosophy is integral to embracing risk and key to establishing a culture that drives innovation and transformation. Adopting agile practices widely gives businesses the best chance of translating their new capabilities into Business 4.0 attributes. 51% of companies with annual revenue more than USD 5 billion say agile underpins all their processes • The reluctance of people and senior management to change is among the biggest challenges organizations face in their pursuit of Business 4.0 transformation The survey includes answers from 1,231 respondents from 11 industries in 18 countries and in-depth interviews with 30 business leaders from across industries worldwide, to get their perspective on Business 4.0. w w w . d t e u r o p e . c o m

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indian focus WELCOME TO HUNGARY

university educations. India’s largest software developer and the country’s first outsourcing company expanded its Budapest-based global service center in 2017, creating 500 new jobs and boosting the total number of employees to 1,800.

Following in the footsteps of Tata Consultancy Services, several other Indian companies involved in information technology have moved operations to Hungary. Genpact Hungary was established in 2002 when it started Business Process Outsourcing in the region. The company currently employs people from 29 countries serving customers across Europe in 15 languages.

Cognizant opened a delivery center in Hungary 2008. The Budapest office is the latest addition to their global network of delivery centers and supports a range of Cognizant services, covering application development, application maintenance, business process outsourcing, consulting and technology infrastructure services.

INDIA AMONG THE TOP 10 FOREIGN INVESTORS IN HUNGARY

Indian companies have invested close to USD 2 billion in Hungary over the past three decades, making the Asian country one of the most prolif ic sources of capital from the East. Diplomacy&Trade takes a look at the most signif icant corporate investments that hail from the subcontinent.

Gateway to the West

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Automotive industry in focus Indian automotive industry supplier Samvardhana Motherson Group (SMG) has an expanded presence in Hungary. As one of the 21 largest automotive suppliers worldwide, SMG operates units in Mosonszolnok, Mosonmagyaróvár, Hegyeshalom and Kecskemét. These employ more than 3,500 people and supply Porsche, Audi, Volkswagen, Suzuki, Honda, Mercedes and Peugeot, among others. The company’s molded plastics division, Motherson Automotive Technologies & Engineering (MATE) announced a HUF 5 billion expansion at its base in Túrkeve, southeastern Hungary, earlier this year, to build a 12,000 square-meter plant.

Adding to the range of Indian automotive presence in Hungary, Samvardhana Motherson Reflectec (SMR), which develops and manufactures rear view mirror systems and intelligent camera technologies for the automotive industry, set up a number of units in Hungary.

The company is a member of the Samvardhana Motherson Group. With three manufacturing plants and a logistics center, SMR Hungary has become one of the largest rear-view mirror manufacturers in the world, supplying more than eight million sets of external mirrors a year to car companies such as Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Opel, Porsche, Kia, Ford, and Jaguar Land Rover.

Attracting added value In addition to attracting labor-intensive industrial investors, the Hungarian government has stated its objective of mixing the portfolio of foreign investments, tipping the balance in favor of more complex and value-added investments.

The investment of Tata Consultancy Services fits this strategy perfectly. One of the pioneers of Indian investors in Hungary, Tata Consultancy Services opened its first service center in Budapest in 2001. This was the company’s first Global Delivery Center outside of India, employing engineers, economists, information experts and developers with multilingual capabilities and

ÁRVAI/KORMANY.HU

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in November 2018. The volume of bilateral trade amounted to USD 665 million in 2017, according to data from the Central Statistics Office.

photos by KÁROLY

The 2014 announcement of India’s Apollo Tyres, the world’s 7th biggest tire manufacturer, that it would establish a manufacturing unit in Hungary at a cost of EUR 475 million sent flurries of excitement across the Hungarian business community. It was one of the largest greenfield investments in the country’s history and one of the most prominent commitments to Hungary by an Indian company. Apollo’s decision propelled India to the top rank among the largest greenfield investors in Hungary in 2014 and the continued inflow of investment from the subcontinent secured India the third place in the same category in 2015.

Following the end of the Communist regime in Hungary in 1990, the influx of Indian investments to Hungary increased significantly.

Indian companies active in the fields of information technology, pharmaceuticals, electrical machinery, food processing and auto-components have chosen Hungary as an investment destination. Nearly three decades later, the total amount of Indian foreign direct investment is close to USD 2 billion and Indian companies offer employment to almost 10,000 Hungarians. Internationally recognized brands such as Tata Consultancy Services, Cognizant, Tech Mahendra, SMR Automotive, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Orion Electronics, and Cosmos are among the Indian companies that are active in the country, some of them choosing Hungary to establish their first presence outside of India.

The Asian country is the 9th largest foreign investor in Hungary and bilateral trade has also benefited from the influx of investments,

Hungary’s strategic location in the heart of Europe greatly adds to the county’s allure as an investment destination, especially for companies from outside the European Union. Indian businesses active in Hungary use their presence here as a gateway to reach the EU market with over 500 million consumers. “With this inauguration today of our Hungarian greenfield facility, we have crossed another milestone in our global growth journey. This facility will help us further increase our presence and market share in Europe. From being a replacement market focused company in Europe, we will soon be starting supplies of our tires to all the leading OEMs in Europe,” Onkar S Kanwar, chairman of Apollo Tyres said at the opening of the Hungarian factory in 2017. Apollo’s Hungarian facility will complement the company’s existing unit in the Netherlands, and will produce both Apollo and Vredestein brand of tires for the European market. The Hungarian plant started production in 2017 and has a capacity to produce 5.5 million passenger car & light truck tires and 675,000 heavy commercial vehicle tires per year. Prime Minister Orbán remarked at the same event that many people voiced their suspicion of the government’s policy of Eastern Opening, saying it was a hopeless endeavor. However, countries “to the East of us increasingly dominate the world economy. India is a prime example of that,” the premier said.

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Discover colorful India!

Fly LOT to New Delhi via Warsaw From September on board the Dreamliner lot.com

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indian focus

THE HOME OF INDIAN CULTURE IN HUNGARY

AMRITA SHER-GIL CENTER PRESENTS VARIOUS ASPECTS OF INDIAN CULTURE

The Indian Minister of State for Culture, Dr. Mahesh Sharma told Diplomacy&Trade three years ago that “culture is a way of life in India: everything from getting up in the morning and moving on through the daily routine,” concluding that “our life is our culture.” The events organized by the Amrita Sher-Gil Cultural Center bring a slice of that culture to Hungary.

She sees “immense opportunities and possibilities that haven't yet been tapped” in the cooperation between the Indian and Hungarian film industries. Most film makers from India only explore themes and locations in Budapest, she notes. “Hungary is replete with beautiful, historical locations that need to be tapped by film makers from India. Similarly, there is scope for collaboration on the subjects of our shared past and historical figures such as Csoma de Kőrös, Rabindranath Tagore or Amrita Sher-Gil. I can say that the journey has just begun and should be explored more deeply in future.”

Plans and initiatives

Cultural similarities Hungarians and Indians share a love and passion for art and music, the Director points out. In Indian culture, music is a primary motif in all forms of art and day-to-day life, including Bollywood, cricket, customs and rituals, marriages and childbirth. Even the change of seasons has its own songs and dances. “Music is the the most common form of amusement in India, especially in villages. In several tribes of India, the selection of a partner requires certain ceremonies and rituals, which are almost always accompanied by group dances. In some tribes the

Tanuja Shankar has ambitious plans for the cultural center. “As Director, I have miles to go before I rest. Under the guidance of the Ambassador of India, Kumar Tuhin, I am looking forward to building a very wide outreach through soft power initiatives over the next three years,” she says.

The center is working on programs to mark the 70th anniversary of India-Hungary diplomatic relations this year. The ’Alluring India’ fashion show will be based on this theme and India Film Week will bring a collection of popular Indian films, film makers and actors to Hungary. The center is collaborating with many Hungarian stakeholders like fashion designers, fashion academies, art and theater academies, actors, models and fashion students. “I am hoping that such initiatives will help us walk the path that leads to a stronger and longer lasting cultural relationship with Hungary,” the Director concludes.

boys do mock elopement with the girls and there is a lot of bonhomie and dancing around this theme,” Tanuja Shankar says.

The Director notes that the Hungarian tradition of boys throwing water on girls and teasing them on Easter Monday bears a resemblance to folk rituals in India. “I have heard that it is for the fertility of girls. There is also the Busójárás festival where people wear masks in the town of Mohács and conduct rituals that remind me of similar folk customs and rural rituals in India.

Besides this, I have found similarities between the colorful ‘Matyó’ and ‘Kalocsa’ embroideries and the 'Phulkari' embroideries from Punjab in India, both being colorful and vibrant.”

Professional background

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Tanuja Shankar brings with her a 24-year career in the world of entertainment, where she held jobs writing scripts, programming radio broadcasts, directing television programs and working in filmmaking. “I also worked in media education where I mentored hundreds of students who are now employed by top media houses in India. The field of media and entertainment makes one fit into a number of molds. I learnt to take any challenge in stride. The most valuable skill I gained in the field of media is handling people and work under tough deadlines. My creativity helps me think differently and come up with ideas on how to accomplish our objectives of bringing wider audiences closer to the culture of India and connecting with as many people as possible without being repetitive. I try to use my abilities as a writer, film maker and teacher to complete this job here in Budapest.”

HARANGOZÓ, VANJA CERIMAGIC/WWW.CERIMAGIC.BA, AMRITA SHER-GIL CULTURAL CENTER

The name choice for the Amrita SherGil Cultural Center, an integral part of the Embassy of India to Hungary, pays homage to the celebrated painter of Hungarian and Indian origin. Born in Budapest to an Indian father and a Jewish-Hungarian mother, Amrita Sher-Gil gained world recognition with her enigmatic paintings in which Eastern and Western art co-exist in organic symbiosis.

The center is the place to visit for anyone wishing to get a taste of Indian culture; its rich offerings of events are the next best thing to visiting the Asian country. “In its endeavor to introduce Indian culture to the Hungarian audience, the Amrita Sher-Gil Cultural Center has curated special India days, which offer a glimpse of Indian music, tradition and mythology, art, craft and cuisine,” Tanuja Shankar, Director of the Amrita Sher-Gil Cultural Center says. “We organize events demonstrating how to wear Indian clothes like the Sari, and tell stories through performing arts, presentations, films and songs. It is an interactive method to introduce a slice of Indian culture in an entertaining manner. Besides India days in different cities, villages and institutions, the Center also conducts workshops and lecture-demonstrations in Indian Culture, Yoga & Spiritualism, where through meditation, Yogic postures, storytelling from ancient scriptures, presentations and audio-visual aids, we acquaint participants with the traditions and culture of India. Indian cinema is also a key feature of our program, and we have weekly screenings with Hungarian subtitles,” Tanuja Shankar explains.

Classical and folk dances as well as performing art events are staged every Tuesday with artists coming from India and Europe. “The popularity of our programs has grown in the last few years with more and more people attending our shows and we now have packed houses for most of our concerts of instrumental and dance performances. The most popular programs are classical dances as well as bands performing traditional Indian classical music with some elements of fusion,” she adds.

Another emerging favorite is the annual International Day of Yoga that the center organizes in several cities across Hungary. This year, related events were held in 23 cities and had tremendous response from locals.

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STAN AHUJA IS THE YOUNG VOICE OF MASTERFUL TAILORING AND CRAFTSMANSHIP.

STAN AHUJA PASSION FOR TAILORING

+36 1 354 0195 w w w. s t a n a h u j a . c o m info@stanahuja.com 1061 Budapest, Andrássy út 38.

H – P: 10:00 – 19:00 SZO: 11:00 – 16:00

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MÁTÉ HAUMANN FOR STAN AHUJA AT THE RITZ-CARL TON, BUDAPEST

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­­indian focus PEOPLE JUST LOVE IT

his wife points out. His ambition is to “show people his love and passion for cooking: good flavors from premium ingredients.” The initial strategy was to be open every day of the year so that people with a craving for Indian food would always find their doors open. “25 years ago, there were only about 25 Indian families in Hungary, so we had to lure in Hungarians as well, to make this venture sustainable and profitable. As a person who doesn’t take no for an answer, he went to many festivals, even in the countryside, to showcase Indian food. His efforts paid off and he can be proud because Hungarians now love Indian kitchen,” Tünde Földesi says.

The secret to a successful track record spanning several decades is maintaining rigorous standards with authentic, top quality ingredients.

“Once people are served bad food, they will not say the restaurant was bad but that the food was bad. I still feel personally responsible to give Indian cuisine a good name on the Hungarian market,” Kulvinder Singh Jham says. He regularly visits butchers to check hygienic, cooling and other conditions and suppliers are also monitored continuously.

THE PIONEER OF INDIAN CUISINE IN HUNGARY

Kulvinder Singh Jham and his Hungarian wife, Tünde Földesi opened a new chapter in the history of gastronomy in Hungary 25 years ago when they opened the f irst Indian restaurant, the Maharaja, in the Hungarian capital. In addition to introducing the cuisine of India to locals, the couple regard themselves as the ambassadors of Indian cuisine in the country.

Boasting a chain of 4 restaurants in Hungary and 1 in neighboring Slovenia, Maharaja has turned into a household name among gourmands with a taste for the rich and spicy cuisine of India. “At the time, by opening the restaurant in Óbuda, we not only brought Indian food to Hungary but several aspects of Indian culture as well. People ‘got the message’ and now there are over 15 Indian restaurants in the country, including four of ours,” Kulvinder Singh Jham says, adding that “people just love it.”

Authentic Indian The Maharaja chain, which operates three restaurants in Budapest, one in Szentendre and one in Ljubljana, considers its mission to familiarize guests with authentic Indian cuisine. “The quality is my responsibility. We bring the chefs from India, we use authentic spices imported through England or Austria, and the vegetables and meats are acquired in Hungary. Importing these goods is fairly simple within the European Union but it was quite difficult 20-25 years ago,” Kulvinder Singh Jham notes.

Providing for the needy Kulvinder Singh Jham is of Sikh origin and providing for the needy is enshrined in Sikh tradition. “We wanted to build a Sikh temple in Hungary. We didn’t succeed because there are very few Sikh families here, but the main message of the community is to help each other and those in need. We provide food for the homeless in Szentendre through the local charity organization Vasárnapi Merőkanál (‘Sunday Ladle’),” he says. For the past 5 years, the organization has distributed up to 150 portions of vegetarian food provided by Maharaja every second weekend.

Ambassador of Indian cuisine

photo by DÁVID

HARANGOZÓ

Kulvinder Singh Jham rightly considers himself the ‘ambassador of Indian cuisine’ in Hungary,

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business dollar and he probably won’t shy away from deploying tools that may weaken the dollar. This will have a negative impact on emerging market currencies, including the forint,” according to the analyst. He expects the currency to trade in a 320-325 range against the euro over the next 12 months with shorter periods of volatility.

Virovácz believes that the central bank is unlikely to hike interest rates even if the forint weakens to 330 per euro. ”Policy makers will resort to verbal intervention if the forint hits the 330 level; I would be very surprised if the NBH were to go against the tide and tightened monetary conditions at a time when several Asian central banks are cutting rates, the market expects the Fed to do the same and the ECB announced that it would loosen monetary conditions,” he says.

The central bank last lowered borrowing costs in May 2016, cutting the key interest rate from 1.15% to 0.9% and policy makers have kept the benchmark rate unchanged since.

Retirement down the road

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FORINT!

THE HUNGARIAN CURRENCY, BORN IN THE MIDST OF THE WORLD’S HIGHEST HYPERINFLATION, TURNS 73 Hungary introduced the forint in 1946 to overcome the economic meltdown triggered by the Second World War and the most severe hyperinflation the world had ever seen. Over the past seven decades, the currency has withstood global economic turmoils and become fully convertible. The question of when it will go into retirement is set to remain open for years to come.

HARANGOZÓ

Decades of stability

photos by DÁVID

In December 1946, hungry pedestrians were roaming the ruined streets of Budapest, devastated by the Second World War. Thieves no longer specialized in jewelry or works of art, but rather items of clothing and loaves of bread. Burdened by the world’s highest inflation, Hungarians were living from one day to the next. Price growth hit a world record on July 10, 1946 when the rate of inflation reached a staggering 348.46%, meaning that prices doubled every 15 hours. The official currency of the time, the pengő, essentially disappeared from the economy and bartering was the means of trade. The untenable situation prompted officials to print ever increasing denominations, which culminated in the introduction of the ’bilpengő’, the biggest currency denomination printed in the world, equalling one trillion pengő. Failing to bring rampant inflation under control, the government introduced a new currency named forint on August 1 1946 to restore confidence in money, tamper inflation and revive the nation’s economic performance. The initial exchange rate of the new currency was 400,000 quadrillion pengő to 1 forint.

The launch of the forint and a rigurous control over the amount of money circulating in the economy proved efficient and the economic situation slowly returned to normalcy: the shortage of manufactured w w w . d t e u r o p e . c o m

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goods and food items came to an end and the previously unstoppable rise in consumer prices ceased. The 30-ton gold stock of the National Bank of Hungary, which was returned in August 1946 by the U.S. at the request of the Hungarian state, played a major role in consolidating the forint. Decades of relative currency stability followed under the planned economy of the Communist regime. The fall of Communism and the transition to a market economy in the early 1990s upset the stability of the forint as prices that the Communists had kept artificially low began to rise in the double digits and inflation peaked at 35% in 1991. In the second part of the

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1990s, domestic and international confidence in the Hungarian currency strengthened, inflation returned to single-digit territory and the forint was declared fully convertible in 2001.

What the future holds Hungary’s European Union accession in 2004 accelerated the country’s economic convergence with western Europe and brought a monetary stability that even the 2008 global financial crisis could not uproot. Barring short periods of volatility, the currency has moved largely in tandem with its central and eastern European peers. Despite mounting external risks, the forint is set to move in a narrow range against the euro over the coming year, says Péter Virovácz, Senior Economist at ING Bank in Budapest. ”There are two opposite impacts currently shaping the exchange rate of the forint. On the one hand, markets will see over the coming months that the National Bank of Hungary was right to wait with raising interest rates and this will increase market participants’ confidence in the central bank and lend support to the forint,” Virovácz notes. ”On the other hand, we are facing very significant external risks, including the U.S.’s tense relations with China, Iran and Turkey to an increasing extent, as well as the uncertainty surrounding the Brexit process. President Trump has made it clear that he does not want a strong

Although it has served the country well in the past 70 years, the forint’s days are numbered. When Hungary became an EU member it undertook to introduce the single European currency, albeit at an unidentified date. While previous governments set euro adoption dates that they consistently missed, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán put the issue of joining the eurozone on the backburner since coming to power in 2010.

Hungary must be cautious about adopting the euro as it should remain open toward other parts of the world, Orbán told a conference of central bankers from China and the central and eastern European region last November. “We want to be an integral part of the European community while at the same time remaining open toward other regions and communities. This will also have to be expressed in our decision about the euro,” the premier said. His words were echoed by National Bank of Hungary Governor György Matolcsy, who said in February this year that Hungary will only adopt the euro ”in the coming decades,” as the country needs to learn more about the processes affecting the common currency beforehand.

Meanwhile, popular support for the euro is the highest in Hungary among all EU member states that have not yet adopted the single currency.

The share of Hungarians in favor of introducing the euro jumped seven percentage points to 66% in April 2019, according to the European Commission’s latest Eurobarometer survey.

When it comes to euro adoption, the country is split in two camps, Virovácz says. There are those who bring up the example of Slovakia, which seems to have successfuly adopted the euro, while the other camp is in favor of pursuing heightened caution. ”I do not necessarily agree with either side, what’s really important is for Hungary to have a budget surplus for a few years before euro adoption and to lower the debt level to below 50% of GDP as this would create the necessary fiscal buffer to offset the impact of losing monetary independence,” Virovácz says. In light of Prime Minister Orbán’s 2018 remark that he was planning to remain in power for at least another 12 years, the issue of introducing the euro is unlikely to feature on the agenda over the coming years, the analyst notes.

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united states ARNE KLEHN: A WELL-TRAVELED ROMANTIC

Arne Klehn, a father of two, brings over 20 years of professional experience across the tourism and hotel industry.

The Kiel, Germany-born executive became a General Manager at the age of 29 and worked at Marriott hotels in the U.K., the U.S., Germany, France and Turkey before moving to Budapest. “Our daughter was born in Istanbul, our son in Budapest and my wife moved twice while being pregnant,” he says. Klehn, a self-proclaimed romantic, learnt skiing at the age of 42 so he could master the slopes together with his daughter. ”The ski trip I took with the family was one of the most intense and at the same time relaxing vacations I have ever had.” Klehn likes both red and white wine and during visits to a couple of Hungarian wineries he was delighted by local wines and food. He runs regularly, does deep work pilates, and loves listening to jazz and pop music. ”Lake Balaton is on the top of my bucket list, we will definitely visit it before the end of the season.

The Balkans also feature high on the list and living in Budapest offers a great opportunity to visit these countries.”

INCREASING THE FOOTPRINT

BUDAPEST IS PART OF MARRIOTT’S EXTENSIVE EAST EUROPEAN EXPANSION

Marriott International, the world’s largest hotel chain, is planning to open several new hotels in the Hungarian capital to benef it from the increasing influx of business and leisure travelers. Marriott Budapest General Manager Arne Klehn is conf ident that the brand’s future looks bright as the boom in tourism is set to continue and the high-prof ile international events hosted by the city next year will continue to boost demand.

The General Manager notes that Marriott is guarded from disruptive developments in the hotel industry and the company’s loyalty program Bonvoy, its strongest brand, offers very strong incentive for guests not to choose

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Marriott Budapest was off to an unexpectedly strong start this year despite ongoing renovations, Klehn says, adding that the

other types of accommodation. However, companies like AirBnB, are taking up an increasing share of the accommodation market and traditional hotels are also coming up with new initiatives to cater to evolving customer needs. “We clearly see that we need to step into the home sharing market, therefore we’ve designed a new brand called Homes and Villas

by Marriott, which is a selection of curated, unique properties across the world, including castles, villas, and luxury apartments, where our Bonvoy guests can also get points for their stay,” Klehn says, adding that Budapest is not yet on the list of locations where the new brand will be introduced. Despite fierce local competition, especially in the higher segment of the hotel industry, and the competitive threat posed by cruise liners which also offer accommodation, Klehn is confident that the increase in corporate visits and events and higher guest numbers will ensure the continued

HARANGOZÓ, HAKAN AKDEMIR/HAKANAKDEMIR.COM

No threat from disruptive initiatives

Promising outlook

photos by DÁVID

A record number of tourists visited Hungary last year and the trend has continued unabated in 2019, powered by the increase in the attractiveness of the country and central Europe as a tourist destination. The hotel industry is benefiting from this favorable environment and an impressive number of new hotel developments are underway. Marriott International plays a key part in this expansionary drive. ”In order to stay on top of the game, Marriott will be increasing its footprint. Currently, we only have five hotels of our brand portfolio in the city, and I am confident we will increase this number soon,” Arne Klehn says in an interview.

occupancy rate at the hotel will be 89% in 2019. The General Manager took over the helm at Budapest Marriott in May 2018, just months after the start of a widescale renovation project under which the hotel rooms, the lobby, the DNB Budapest restaurant and the Liz and Chain bar were all given a facelift. ”The strong inflow of visitors is set to continue over the coming years, and events like the UEFA European Football Championship, the European Petrochemical Association congress, the International Eucharistic Congress, and the U.S. MICE congress – all scheduled for 2020 – will bring a lot of additional visitors to the city. So, 2020 is set to be even better than this year,” Klehn concludes.

success of Marriott in Budapest. The number of visitors arriving to Hungary from countries traditionally important for the tourist industry rose in the first five months of the year, with the number of guests from the U.S. jumping by nearly 11% on an annual basis and by close to 10% in the case of the U.K. and France, according to data published by the Association of Hungarian Hotels and Restaurants.

This is an encouraging development for Marriott Budapest, as 40% of the hotel’s guests arrive from America, Klehn notes.

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united states THE FUTURE OF WORK

ORGANIZATIONS PREPARED TO TACKLE DIGITAL CHALLENGES STILL A MINORITY

photo by SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Technological development and disruptive technologies like artif icial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and automation will fundamentally change the way we work in the future. A holistic approach to employee well-being, bridging the generational gap in the workforce, machine-assisted working processes and a flexible working arrangement are indispensable in the digital age, according to a study by Dell Technologies.

The digital age is posing a set of challenges to businesses worldwide and when disruption knocks on the door, many don’t recognize the opportunities that accompany it. The adoption of technological advances in the Industry 4.0 age will impact the workforce and the work environment, corporate culture, the skills needed, as well as talent research, according to a research commissioned by Dell Technologies and VMware, and carried out by IDC. Entitled ‘Becoming Future of Work Ready: Follow the Leaders’, the study is based on an online survey of small, medium and large businesses in six European countries and reveals companies’ readiness to adapt to changes stemming from technological development.

The research project focused on the outlook for three key organizational areas: working culture, workspace and workforce.

“Organizations need to be at the leading edge of change in today's fast-paced world.

Competition has never been fiercer than it is now, and agile companies that are innovative and disruptive will survive,” according to the study. As technology-driven changes sweep across the corporate world, demand for professional expertise offered by companies like Dell is skyrocketing. Industry experts at Dell offer a comprehensive range of strategic guidance and proven practical capabilities to help with transformation objectives.

Indeed, the need for transformation has never been higher. According to the European survey conducted by IDC in November 2018, w w w . d t e u r o p e . c o m

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only 29% of European organizations have successfully established and even fewer have implemented a Future of Work strategy.

The study calls these entities ‘Future of Work determined organizations’ (FDOs).

Having realized the value of employees in business performance, FDOs are taking an integrated, holistic view of employee experience from recruitment to retirement, capturing their overall physical, emotional, professional, and financial well-being, regardless whether they are full-time employees, contingent workers, or crowdsourced talent.

Employee experience is tracked through regular surveys and performance reviews.

One conclusion of the study is that “the workspace is no longer seen as a static environment or limited to specific hours, but one that essentially fits the different workstyles of employees. Whether they're traveling, in the field, or working from home, employees are transforming any environment into their workspace by mixing physical, digital, and immersive technologies.”

As regards the impact of intelligent technologies on the workforce (office workers as well as blue-collar employees), FDOs are using a range of intelligent technologies to both automate work and augment skills, while placing special emphasis on cultural acceptance and change management, the study says. If carefully implemented, automation can have a significant positive impact on productivity, customer experience, and employee engagement.

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STUDY HIGHLIGHTS

• Security has been a principal focus for European businesses due to legislation such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Overall, over a third of the companies agreed security privacy and governance were the biggest challenges to workplace innovation. Also, redundant IT systems have been found to affect the integration of new technologies (30%). Investing in new technologies may seem daunting at first; however, with ineffective solutions, the security risk increases which can inevitably lead to a breach of company and customer data.

• The current generational divide is a contributing factor to the Europe-wide delay in realizing the future workplace.

European companies were found to be comprised of 38% Gen Y, 35% Gen X and 7% Gen Z employees. Due to this mix, intergenerational conflicts and multigenerational work expectations are one of the most common factors (29%) affecting adoption rates. Companies could overcome the generational struggles by determining within their business the root causes of these issues, be it a lack of training or fear of the unknown.

• Intelligent technologies automate tasks and enable workers to maximize their potential. FDOs have understood this and over half of them have implemented smart digital assistants, and almost a quarter are using or plan to use AI enabled back-office functions. While these technologies may mean workers will need reskilling, these training services can be conducted through online tools on various platforms (mobile, video, etc.) or even through peer to peer interactions.

• For the workplace to evolve, FDOs have recognized the need for dedicated resources to spearhead the overall development within their businesses. A quarter of FDOs have implemented a company-wide transformation budget to ensure their company is on the right track. However, over a quarter of companies are using funding provided by their IT department. While this is not a detrimental issue, companies should still keep in mind that digital transformation should not run the risk of being left on the wayside but instead be built into their overall business plans for success.

• Flexible working arrangements are a cornerstone for many modern-day workers - they provide the muchneeded work / life balance through technological innovation. Only 2% of European employees have found that their organizations expect no benefits from flexible working compared to 57% who say they’re likely to improve productivity. Companies should consider implementing these work / life balance schemes to not only improve their workers’ overall happiness but also to increase retention.

• FDOs are set to continue developing technological upgrades for their employees to ensure that they can work in a way that’s beneficial to them. Cloud-based platforms (54%), mobile security software 49% and mobile access to tools (39%) are vital initiatives to foster employee productivity. The numerous positive benefits surrounding cloud-based platforms can help simplify device management and the level of scalability for an evolving business.

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summertime easy living

OUTDOOR DINING RECOMMENDATIONS

KÉHLI

1061 Budapest, Andrássy út 8. • +36 1 611 7090 hello@bistrofine.hu • www.bistrofine.hu

1036 Budapest, Mókus utca 22. • +36 1 250 4241 • +36 1 368 0613 postmaster@kehli.t-online.hu • www.kehli.hu

IN THE HEART OF THE CITY, ON ANDRÁSSY AVENUE, Bistro Fine is a casual, friendly, yet sophisticated place to meet with friends or business partners, for a tasty Business lunch or a nice dinner. You can also pop in after work for a glass of wine or for a special cocktail. Bistro fine focuses on creativity and a colorful world of flavors. Visit Bistro Fine and enjoy diverse cuisine!

THE NAME KÉHLI has been synonymous with good Hungarian food and merriment since 1899, when the Kéhli family opened this restaurant in Óbuda. Today, the Cecei-Horváth family manages this restaurant and remains true to its century-old traditions. Gyula Krúdy, one of Hungary’s most famous writers was a regular guest here, and his spirit can still be felt in the atmosphere.

LA PERLE NOIRE

KISTÜCSÖK

LA PERLE NOIRE RESTAURANT features a tasteful interior, a lovely terrace, and a great location on the historic Andrássy Avenue, where beauty and culture meets. Its kitchen is a pioneer amongst the top Hungarian gourmet restaurants, which introduces modern and innovative dishes that draw upon French and Hungarian traditions - a real culinary experience for all. La Perle Noire welcomes guests with lavender champagne, followed by an “amuse bouche” to die for. Live music is played by pianist János Csikós.

WHEN VISITING LAKE BALATON, popping into Kistücsök is a must. Even if you weren’t planning to travel to the Hungarian Sea, this restaurant and wine cellar in Balatonszemes is worth the trip for its innovative regional kitchen and outstanding wine selection of 500 labels. Take time to admire the interior, to linger over the menu, and to appreciate the attentiveness of the owner and his professional staff. Their unparalleled commitment towards regional cuisine and the use of fresh, seasonal, local ingredients is only surpassed by their eagerness to please their guests.

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8636 Balatonszemes, Bajcsy-Zsilinszky utca 25. • +36 84 360 133 kistucsoketterem@t-online.hu • www.kistucsok.hu

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1063 Budapest, Andrássy út 111. • +36 1 462 2189 info@laperlenoire.hu • www.laperlenoire.hu

LÁSZLÓ BALKÁNYI, BAGA, DÁVID HARANGOZÓ, KISTÜCSÖK

BISTRO FINE

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AN ELECTRIC DRIVER

sports

QUALIFYING IN FORMULA ONE IS MAGIC, BUT FORMULA E RACES ARE MORE EXCITING

Race car driver Jérôme d’Ambrosio believes the future of cars and motorsport lies in electronic technology. As new technologies gain traction, Formula E and Formula One may merge in over the next 2 decades, the Belgian driver tells Diplomacy&Trade. become a Formula E world champion.”

Achieving that goal will require a lot of effort on the part of the 33-year old Belgian driver. “This season is pretty tight; I’ve been at the top of the championship rankings on a few occasions, but now I am fifth in the standings.”

Although Formula E is currently his priority, the 24-hour race in Le Mans and driving two-wheel vehicles also feature on d’Ambrosio’s bucket list.

“I would love to do Le Mans one day. It is an amazing race, I was there at the start 4-5 years ago, and I felt goose bumps. The whole atmosphere is very special. However, it is not on my priority list. I really love what I do in Formula E. While I want to try driving a motorbike on a track, it’s not my plan to try racing on two wheels.”

The future of Formula E

With a global cumulative audience of 1.8 billion, Formula One is indisputably the most popular motorsport worldwide, but its electronic version, Formula E is fast emerging as a series to be reckoned with on international level. Formula E’s popular appeal has shown stellar growth in recent years and incessant technological advances promise a bright future for the series.

Compared to Formula One races, driving in the Formula E championship is a lot more difficult as drivers have to take into account a number of factors including battery energy and temperature, d’Ambrosio says. While speed is essential in Formula E as well, the complexity of driving an electric car sets these races apart from Formula One, the Belgian driver explains. This Diplomacy-n-Trade.ai 1 2017. 02. 27. 11:22:30 year marks the fifth season of the FIA Formula

E championship, a motor racing championship for electrically-powered vehicles recognised by the motorsport's governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, as the highest class of competition for electric open-wheel racing cars.

Formula E is fast emerging as one of the most popular series for car manufacturers. Audi, BMW, Nissan and Jaguar are some of the biggest brands to participate in the series, while Mercedes and Porsche will join the 2019/2020 season.

Considering the speed at which electric cars are spreading worldwide, the question arises

whether Formula E will overtake Formula 1, to become the most popular motorsport series.

“I don’t think anything will ever replace Formula One. F1 has an incredible history, and it is very unique – there is Senna, Fangio, Prost and Piquet. However, F1 needs to evolve to become more relevant and to fit our modern times. In the future, we could see a merger between the two races. I’m not sure this is exactly what will happen, but what I know is that things will change in motorsports.”

Although a fan of electric cars in his private life as well, the Mahindra Racing driver cannot imagine life without the classic ‘monsters.’ He seeks to balance history and modern technology in his life.

Senna always on his mind Jérôme d’Ambrosio holds the past and present heroes of Formula 1 in high regard, noting that the sport has given the world fascinating talents.

“Ayrton Senna always comes into my mind, but I also really like Gilles Villeneuve and Jackie Stewart – they are all-time heroes. As I grew a bit older, I really admired Michael Schumacher; I think Lewis Hamilton is pretty impressive, and Max Verstappen is an incredible talent.”

The Formula E driver thinks that the excitement of Formula 1 races is fading, mainly due to the dominance of Mercedes. “At the moment, it is somewhat of a pity that only one car can win in F1 – or perhaps another one, Ferrari. One can see that Verstappen is an incredible talent, but he is not able to fight for the win and so it is a little bit frustrating to watch Red Bull. What I enjoy in Formula E is the fierce competition, with eight different winners in eight races in different cars.”

Dreams Jérôme d’Ambrosio has tried his hand at both series. He was a F1 test driver in 2010 and 2013, raced a whole season for Marussia in 2011 and raced in one Grand Prix for Lotus in 2012. He joined Formula E in 2014.

“Since I was a kid, I have dreamed about racing and worked hard to turn my dreams into reality.

Now, the chance of becoming an F1 champion is very unlikely therefore I am not focusing on that.

I think it would be a bit pointless. My dream is to

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history

BY SÁNDOR LACZKÓ

In the summer of 1989, popular sentiment in central and eastern Europe was nearing a critical juncture. People in the Eastern bloc, sealed off by the Iron Curtain, were raising their voice, demanding democratic elections, freedom of speech and travel, better living conditions. Hungary’s reform-oriented government authorized an informal gathering of Austrians and Hungarians along the border on August 19, so people from both countries could share the experience of a Europe without borders.

In June that year, Otto von Habsburg, the last Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, visited the eastern Hungarian city of Debrecen to hold a lecture on Europe without frontiers. During a dinner that followed his lecture, Ferenc Mészáros, a member of the newly formed political party Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF), suggested that a ‘picnic’ be organized along the border with Austria, according to a study by László Nagy, secretary of the Board of Trustees of the Pan-European Picnic ’89 Foundation. Mészáros eventually persuaded Otto von Habsburg and Imre Pozsgay to act as the sponsors of the event. Pozsgay was a member of the collective presidency of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party, the communist party that ruled the country until the free elections in March-April 1990.

Picnic with an unexpected turn

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THE PICNIC OF THE CENTURY HUNGARY’S DARING DECISION TO OPEN ITS WESTERN BORDER MADE HISTORY

group came closer, the guards realized they were East German civilians. “What crossed my mind immediately was that I had to stop these people from crossing the border. We were authorized to use firearms and I only had about 20 seconds to decide what to do before 100-130 people reached the six of us. It would have been hopeless to stop them and if we used our firearms, it would have been a shame for the country. However, if I had not tried to stop them, it would have been a violation of my duties as a guardian of the border. Fortunately, the crowd solved my dilemma by pushing open one of the wings of the border gate and swarmed to the other side.”

The rest is history. Hungary’s decision to let some 600 civilians from East Germany flee to Austria and eventually on to West Germany was an instrumental moment in the crumbling of the communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe over the following years. Dubbed by the German press as the ‘the first brick from the Berlin Wall’, the Pan-European Picnic was a harbinger of historical changes that would mark the end of an era.

Tóth strongly believes that “we make a mistake if we teach that Hungarian history was decided in the Buda Castle or in Visegrád. No, it is the people who shape history. The Pan-European Picnic is a typical example of that.”

tells Diplomacy&Trade. The events of the day clearly showed that “history and politics do not take place in government quarters only. Civilians, private individuals find themselves sometimes in situations where they have an impact on the process,” Tóth says.

Only seconds to decide A few days before the picnic, Bella received an official telegram warning him that a large number of East Germans may show up at the event and attempt to cross the border illegally.

“For me, this meant that I should make plans to prevent this illegal activity. However, there also came a command, which turned out to have originated from the Prime Minister, that no uniformed personnel should be present in the one-kilometer vicinity of temporary border crossings, apart from those handling passports,” Bella says. The order applied to the entire strip of the Austro-Hungarian border and when Bella tried to get information, on the morning of the picnic, on how to perform his duties as commander of that particular crossing station, he received no instructions.

“At 3 p.m., we were supposed to let a hundredstrong Hungarian delegation through the border to Austria and later let them return with some Austrians. The crossing would be opened

at three and closed at six and that would be it,” Bella says.

A few minutes before 3 p.m., Bella and his people caught sight of a large group of people moving toward the crossing point. At first, they thought it was the official delegation but as the A U G U S T

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LOBENWEIN/PANEUROPEAN PICNIC '89 FOUNDATION

In a symbolic gesture agreed to by Austria and Hungary, a border crossing between the two countries was opened for three hours on August 19, 1989, allowing hundreds of East Germans to flee to the West. Three decades later, the historical event, dubbed the Pan-European Picnic, is still hailed as Hungary’s bold moment in history.

photos by TAMÁS

In an effort to promote the notion of a united Europe, the Austrian and Hungarian governments agreed to open a crossing point at Sopronpuszta for three hours on August 19, almost two months after Austrian Foreign Minister Alois Mock and his Hungarian counterpart, Gyula Horn, had cut the border fence about 6 kilometers from that spot.

Tipped off to the event, hundreds of East German citizens rushed to the border in an attempt to escape to West Germany through Austria. In the absence of clear instructions, Hungarian border guards were at a loss as to how to handle the unexpected situation. In what later proved a historic decision, Lieutenant Colonel Árpád Bella, the local commander of the border post at the time, forbade the use of the weapons, thus preventing the celebration from turning into a tragedy.

The presence of the East Germans at the picnic site was no coincidence, Bella (pictured below) tells Diplomacy&Trade in a telephone interview.

The former commander believes that Hungarian Prime Minister Miklós Németh used the occasion to test Moscow’s reaction to East German citizens crossing the border to the West ‘all of a sudden’.

If the Soviet leadership turned a blind eye to the events of that fateful day, Hungary’s borders could then officially be opened to about 15,000 East Germans gathering in Budapest, at Lake Balaton and near Hungary’s western border.

“The problem was that even the officials most concerned – like myself – were not notified about this official intent while unknown people distributed flyers in refugee camps in the country saying East Germans should go to the border near Sopron as there might be a chance for them to get to the West. Some 600 of them believed in this opportunity and showed up at the frontier.”

The picnic was part of a process, an episode in a series of events that led from the erosion of the bipolar system to its disintegration, Imre Tóth, historian and the Director of the Sopron Museum,

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culture 'DON'T WORRY' sung in the movie by Fatoumata Diawara Changing relationship The relationship between the boy and the French actor, the central axis of the movie, undergoes a fundamental change. “At the beginning, the actor is very confident in taking the boy home to his family in the countryside but I wanted to show that the boy is more important for the actor than the other way around,” Godeau says. As the movie progresses, it becomes increasingly evident that the main purpose of Tall’s journey is not only to see the boy home but also to explore his ancestral homeland and the way people live.

“The child ends up being a guide on this journey,” the director notes.

Women and time

A HEARTFELT MESSAGE FROM AFRICA AN INTER-GENERATIONAL, CROSS-CULTURAL ROAD MOVIE

photos by DÁVID

HARANGOZÓ, COURTESY PICTURE

Director Philippe Godeau’s third movie entitled 'Yao' marks the return of celebrated Franco-African actor Omar Sy to the wide screen in a heartwarming elegy to West Africa. Guiding viewers along the dusty roads of Senegal, Godeau’s movie is essentially a road trip back to one’s ancestral roots.

Meet Yao (Lionel Louis Basse), the 13-year-old boy living in a dusty Senegalese village whose sole ambition is to meet his idol, the famous French actor Seydou Tall (Omar Sy). His dream comes within reach when Tall travels to his country of origin for the first time to promote his new book. Young Yao runs away from home and travels nearly 400 kilometers to the capital in the hope of meeting the actor. The two strike up a friendship and in the spur of a moment Tall decides to see the boy back to his village. As the two make their way across the country, viewers are treated to a kind-hearted portrait of friendship and a leisurely trip back to one’s roots.

International movie database IMBb lists the movie as a comedy and drama. When asked

by Diplomacy&Trade, director Philippe Godeau says “I do not think it would fit either genre classification. It is not a comedy and not a drama, it is between the two.” w w w . d t e u r o p e . c o m

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‘This is my message to you’

Road movie Much of the film is shot as a road movie, reminiscent of American productions of this genre, which is no coincidence. “I very much liked the 1973 movie ‘Badlands’, written and directed by Terrence Malick, starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. It was an inspiration and I thought I would like to shoot my movie as if it were in the United States. I think when people shoot a movie in Africa it is usually seen as a documentary. I have a lot of respect for Senegal, the country and its people. I wanted to make a ‘real’ movie that I place somewhere between documentary and fiction. I wanted to make a film about Africa,” the director, who is one of the screenplay writers as well as the producer, highlights. True to Godeau’s intention, the film has strong documentary features, peppered with images of people at the market, kids going to school, and traffic disrupted by praying people. Godeau stresses

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En route to their destination in Northen Senegal, the two encounter an array of colorful characters, among them the exotic singer Gloria (Fatoumata Diawara). “Women are cleverer than men.

I wanted to have a character in the movie who is a free woman as opposed to most other Senegalese women,” the director says. Gloria speaks English, sings in English (see QR code) and traveling with Tall and Yao, she proves that she has the power to steer their lives. In another scene, an elderly lady talks about the slow passing of time to eternity. Godeau emphasizes that “in Africa, time is not the same – I wanted to show that. Time cannot be same as in the more developed parts of the world if it takes a day to fetch water for the family. I used to take trips to Africa when I was young, and it was one of the first things I discovered. It was one of my most important goals to try to get this feeling through to the audience. I am not saying Africa is better – it is different: in terms of spirituality, time and many other things.”

the importance of portraying day-to-day life in Senegal, saying that he had a particular story in mind “and I wanted to make it into a realistic movie.”

The movie premiered in Dakar last December.

“First, we went to Saint-Louis, the town where Lionel Louis Basse, the young actor playing Yao’s character is from. We had a screening there and another one in the village where the movie had been shot. It was all very exciting for the villagers.

Finally, we also had a showing in the capital, Dakar – it was a great success everywhere we went,” Godeau says.

Bob Marley’s hit song ‘Don’t worry,’ sung by Gloria in the movie, may seem like an odd choice for a movie set in Senegal. Why this song? “I wanted to make a modern movie in Africa, and I wanted to have an English song in it – something everybody knows. Actually, it was Fatoumata’s idea to choose this one and when I called Omar about it, he said it was his favorite Bob Marley song. It added color to the movie and showed her singing talent,” the director explains.

One of the lines of the song says: “This is my message to you”. What was Goudeau’s message?

“I wanted to invite people to Africa and show the place to them; tell them that is it different.

I leave it to everyone to draw their conclusion after watching the movie.”

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society Bastille Day The Ambassador of the Republic of France to Hungary, Pascale Andreani hosted a July 14 celebration attended by hundreds of guests at the ambassadorial residence in the Buda Hills. The event marked the 230th anniversary of the French Revolution. Guests were treated to a rendition of ‘Summer nights’ by Hector Berlioz.

The French composer, who passed away 150 years ago, was a friend of the famed Hungarian composer Ferenc Liszt.

Morocco Throne Day On the 20th anniversary of the accession to the throne of King Mohammed VI, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco, Karima Kabbaj held a reception at the New York Palace Hotel in Budapest. King Mohammed VI of the Alaouite dynasty acceded to the throne in July 1999.

Columbia Independence Day

GYÖRGY KONKOLY-THEGE, DÁVID HARANGOZÓ, ATTILA NÉMETH/US EMBASSY

The Ambassador of Colombia to Hungary, Carmenza Jaramillo Gutiérrez hosted a reception in the Museum of Military History in the Buda Castle to celebrate the 200th Anniversary of the Independence of the Republic of Colombia. The holiday commemorates Simon Bolívar’s invasion of Colombia and his victory over Spanish forces on August 7, in 1819 at Boyacá.

U. S. Independence Day U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David B. Cornstein welcomed guests to a reception at the Budapest Congress Center to celebrate the 243rd anniversary of the Independence of the United States.

Attendees, including Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán, were entertained

by Canadian American singer and songwriter Paul Anka.

Peru Independence Day

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photos by

In celebration of his country’s national holiday, the Peruvian Ambassador to Hungary, Raul Alfredo Salazar Cosio organized a reception at the Budapest Marriott Hotel. The national day commemorates the proclamation of Peru’s independence by José de San Martín on July 28, 1821.

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witty leaks WITTY

IN THIS SERIES, DIPLOMATS SHARE PERSONAL ACCOUNTS OF THEIR EXPERIENCES ON “EXCURSIONS” into Hungarian culture, art, gastronomy & scenery.

LE A K S

A WOMAN OF LETTERS REFLECTIONS ON THE DANUBE, MUSIC, POETRY AND THE HUNGARIAN CHARACTER

BY ANUNCIADA FERNÁNDEZ DE CÓRDOVA, SPANISH AMBASSADOR TO HUNGARY

On the day I was to present my Letter of Credentials to the President of Hungary, an official car arrived promptly to pick me up at my residence. The convoy advanced, solemn and with sirens blaring, toward the Castle. When crossing the Danube from Pest to Buda on the Elizabeth Bridge, I turned to my companion, the Director of Protocol, to comment on how much I liked the river and how impressed I was by its beauty and the history it carried.

Music and literature

Unexpected sightseeing

photos by TURIZMUSONLINE.HU,

DÁVID HARANGOZÓ

I couldn’t get my bearings; I was too new to the city to recognize the streets and I was overwhelmed by the prospect of my new responsibilities, but I was surprised – after a period of self-absorption – to find myself crossing the Danube again, this time in the direction of Pest, via the Chain Bridge. It must be magic, I thought, this river is zigzagging, contorting itself like a seductive snake, so that I may see it from all angles.

I crossed the Danube five times before finally making it to the President's Office in the Buda Castle. Our motorcade was to arrive exactly at the scheduled time, neither early nor late.

These official acts have their own choreography and the person presenting his Letter of Credentials after me was the new U.S. Ambassador. The Director of Protocol apologized, saying we had to make the little detour on the river because they had miscalculated the heaviness of traffic. I know that I must attribute the route of our detour across the Danube to the kindness with which my comments were received on this occasion and to the pride that my hosts felt in showing me the Danube across different bridges and from different perspectives.

Streets and seasons I cannot paint, I cannot compose music or sculpt, so, the best way for me to express myself is through writing – and I have to express myself, I have to tell stories. A few years ago, having published some novels and a collection of poems, I decided to try my hand at writing short stories about streets that had caught my attention. The streets provided the frame for the stories I had invented. I was travelling much at the time for professional reasons and these streets converted themselves into streets of the world in a book entitled ‘El vuelo de los días’ (‘The Flight of the Days’). It is a telling title w w w . d t e u r o p e . c o m

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of this sounded a little nonsensical to me and I imagined that the launch would involve the three of us looking gloomily at a door through which no one entered. But if they were enthusiastic and willing to go ahead, I was surely not going to be the one to let them down, so we got down to business. On the day of the book launch, the bookstore (which has a great selection of international books but is not very large) was packed. Whether it was because of my books or because of the wine and tortillas de patatas served, I do not know, but the evening allowed me to have a very literary start to my time in Hungary.

because of its embedded double meaning of connecting the sense of tempus fugit – ‘time flies’ – with the fact that a large number of pages had been written on airplanes.

Slovenia, where I was posted for six years as Ambassador, is a country of poets, and that must have inspired me, because my time there resulted in two poetry collections, ‘Invasiones’ (‘Invasions’) and ‘Revelaciones’ (‘Revelations’), as well as an alternative and personal guide entitled ‘Estaciones en Ljubljana’. Again, there was a double meaning in the title with regard to the Spanish word ‘estaciones’, which, on the one hand, can refer to the four seasons of the year and, on the other, can mean the various stations of a journey, the various crossing points of one’s travels.

Book presentation When I arrived in Budapest, the Ambassador of Ireland invited me to his residence to celebrate Bloomsday with a Bloomsday Breakfast. James Joyce’s journey through Dublin inevitably steered the conversation to literature. This literary trail allowed me to meet some people who would become good friends over time.

I had just returned from the Madrid Book Fair where I had been signing copies of my recently edited ‘Revelaciones’. When I mentioned this to a university professor, Eglantina Remport –

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a very nice woman with whom I shared a table at the Bloomsday Breakfast –, she said we should arrange a launch of my poetry collection in Budapest. I could not quite see how this would work: launching a book by a person who had just recently arrived to the city, was little known (if at all), who wrote poetry (thought to be the fancy of a minority) and whose book was written in Spanish. But Tina was adamant, and we went to see Tony Lang, owner of Bestsellers Bookshop.

Tony is a charming compendium of universal history who was born in Lebanon. With his experience as bookseller, he suggested we should launch ‘El vuelo de los días’ together with “Revelaciones” to balance out the poetic side. All

I was struck by two things in Hungary. The Danube, to which I referred at the beginning, and the Great Plain, the puszta: flat, flat and flatter – neither La Mancha nor the Pampa rival this flat feeling of depth. But if I had to pinpoint an artistic expression that would define this country, I would say it was music. This is because of the great composers, performing artists, and locations where one can either listen to music or play it – the multitude of concert halls, churches, bars, restaurants. And there is, of course, that slow and rhythmic applause – the ‘applause of iron’ – that greets performers at the end of the night. I enjoy the incomparable programs at Müpa (the Palace of Arts) and the Liszt Academy, which is at a walking distance from my residence.

I would say that if Spaniards are asked about Hungarians, first, they will say that they are likeable and I am pretty sure they also imagine them happily playing the violin. I had that image in my head, which changed as I delved into Hungarian literature. Excellent, yet so tremendous and so devoid of hope. I am discovering that what local literature narrates or describes corresponds to the character of this nation, which has suffered a lot in its history and, if I may say so, reassures itself by constantly remembering that suffering.

The Danube is the protagonist of the first poem I wrote here, and I was moved by the surprise gift the students of Pázmány Péter Catholic University prepared for me on my first visit to the Spanish Department. It was a translation of one of my poems, the first of my writings translated into Hungarian.

Curiosity fills the Ambassador The ability to feel wonder is the elixir of youth and curiosity is the engine powering one’s walk through life. I am curious about everything in Hungary, I keep my eyes wide open, with my antennas alert to what happens, and I am amazed by some of the things I experience. For example, I am still amazed every time I cross the Danube or when I ride my bike along its banks.

And I record my adventures daily in a notebook, all my reflections and ideas, because even though I may not know what will transpire from them, I know that this is how I always start.

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FLOWER CARNIVAL

AUGUST 14-21, DEBRECEN, 220 KM EAST FROM BUDAPEST

EROS RAMAZZOTTI CONCERT

OCTOBER 24, PAPP LÁSZLÓ BUDAPEST SPORT ARÉNA

Singer, songwriter and musician Eros Ramazzotti hails from Rome’s Cinecitta. His nasal but forceful and resonant baritone voice first gained recognition across Italy, and soon after, he captured the attention of the whole world. He has sold over 60 million records, and regularly performs live to stadium-size crowds. His duets are particularly well-received, especially those sung alongside Cher, Andrea Bocelli, Joe Cocker, Carlos Santana, Tina Turner, Luciano Pavarotti, Ricky Martin, Elton John and Rod Stewart. His fans adore the energetic way he delivers melodic, passionate mid-tempo ballads – a signature genre developed during a 35 year-long career. The Italian superstar’s world tour kicked off in Munich and will stop in 32 countries, including Hungary, showcasing Ramazzotti’s newest album ‘Vita Ce N’è’ (There is Life), released on November 23, 2018.

While Budapest celebrates August 20 (Saint Stephen's Day, commemorating Hungary's first king and the foundation of the Hungarian state) with a series of state ceremonies and concerts, the city of Debrecen organizes a flower festival to mark the official State National Day. In fact, an entire week is spent in the spirit of celebration, music and dance in the second largest city of Hungary. The festival, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2019, has gradually grown into one of Hungary’s best known and Debrecen's most significant festivals offering a spectacular carnival atmosphere when Debrecen’s population doubles with visitors. During the festival, a wide range of folklore programs, open-air theatrical performances, concerts (including Budapest Bar), a street art show and a number of exhibitions welcome visitors, at different venues such as Kossuth Square just in front of the emblematic Great Church of the city, and Nagyerdő, the 'green heart of Debrecen'. The highlight and most memorable part of the festival is the closing day parade of the flower carts or floats, made exclusively of floral components. Millions of blossoms are built into different forms, displaying famous Hungarians or even scenes from musicals and Hungarian folk tales. The floats are accompanied by dance ensembles and cheerleaders.

www.debreceniviragkarneval.hu

www.koncertpromo.jegy.hu

22TH JEWISH CULTURAL FESTIVAL

SEPTEMBER 1-9, MULTIPLE VENUES IN BUDAPEST

Organized by the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities (MAZSIHISZ), along with the Budapest Jewish Community (BZSH) and Broadway Event, the Jewish Cultural Festival is a great opportunity to learn about Hungarian Jewish culture.

Klezmer, jazz, swing and soul music, classical music concerts and operettas are on the list of programs every year. Performers in 2019 include the Budapest Klezmer Band, the Sabbathsong Klezmer Band, the Vujicsics Ensemble, in addition to Almira Emiri, Katica Illényi, Zséda and János Bródy.

KONCERTPROMO.HU, JEWISH CULTURAL FESTIVAL, BUDAPEST SUMMER FESTIVAL

www.zsidokulturalisfesztival.hu

SUKHISHVILI – NATIONAL GEORGIAN BALLET AUGUST 16-17 MARGARET ISLAND OPEN AIR THEATRE

photos by

‘Sukhishvili’ is a blend of traditional Georgian dance with diverse classical influences. Showcasing the history and heroism of the Georgian people, the program features breathtaking costumes and gorgeous choreography. The National Georgian Ballet, the first official national dance group in Georgia, was founded by Iliko Sukhishvili and Nino Ramishvili in 1945. The company, invited to perform worldwide, has stepped on stage at the Sydney Opera House, the London’s Royal Albert Hall, the Manhattan’s Metropolitan Opera and at Milan’s La Scala, where the audience cheered them back onstage 14 times.

Since its formation, this innovative dance company has strayed away from convention, modernizing folklore themes and mixing modern ballet with classical dance elements, thus creating exciting and spectacular productions. The program is part of the annual Budapest Summer Festival.

www.szabadter.hu

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ST. STEPHEN’S DAY

AUGUST 20, MULTIPLE LOCATIONS COUNTRYWIDE

August 20th is the greatest national holiday for Hungarians, celebrated with day-long festivities followed by spectacular fireworks throughout the country. St. Stephen’s Day commemorates the foundation of the Hungarian state, as Stephen I, the first king of Hungary was canonized on this day. Festivities in Budapest usually start at 8.30 AM with the raising of the Hungarian flag in Kossuth Square and continue all day long, culminating in a spectacular fireworks display over the Danube.

The main events include the procession of St. Stephen’s Holy Right Hand around the Basilica, the Court of St Stephen, a historical playhouse, a water parade and an air show along the banks of the river Danube.

SZIGET 2019

AUGUST 7-13, HAJÓGYÁRI SZIGET

Nearly half a million people come every year to Sziget, dubbed the ‘Island of Freedom’, for a week of music, entertainment and non-stop partying. Organized on a beautiful green island every August since 1993, the Sziget festival celebrates music, art, theater and dance based on the principles of freedom and tolerance. The biggest music and arts festival in Europe, this year presents the Foo Fighters, Ed Sheeran, Florence + the Machine, Macklemore, Post Malone, Martin Garrix, James Blake, Franz Ferdinand, Richard Ashcroft, Tove Lo, Jungle, to name only a few on the list of international performers.

www.sziget.hu

33RD FESTIVAL OF FOLK ARTS AUG 17-20, CASTLE DISTRICT

The Festival of Folk Arts (Mesterségek Ünnepe) is the most significant forum for living folk culture in Hungary. It is a uniquely diverse fest, which has received the Certified European Festival title by the European Festival Association. In the historic atmosphere of the Buda Castle, visitors are encouraged to meet the most distinguished representatives of traditional craftsmen, such as leatherworkers, candle makers, beading masters, potters, woodcarvers, egg painters and gingerbread makers. The fest’s guest of honor this year is Japan, while the main theme is shoemaking. The festival is complete with concerts and a myriad of children’s programs – perfect for the whole family.

SZIGET.HU, DEPOSITPHOTOS.COM, LIVE NATION

www.mestersegekunnepe.hu

LUCKY CHOPS CONCERT

OCTOBER 22, BARBA NEGRA TRACK

photos by

Armed with the belief that positive music can change the world, Lucky Chops is on a mission to bring optimism back into the music industry. The band is well known for spontaneity and dance vibe – one would never know they only play brass instruments. The intensity of the their energy is fueled by their desire to inspire others. Lucky Chops became famous thanks to a random spectator, who shot the band’s street performance and shared it with the world on the Internet. They suddenly became a viral sensation and popular performers in New York’s streets and underground. The hard work and dedication put in by each of the six members has been recognized by fans across the globe.

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hospitality Following a soft opening period during the summer, Párisi Udvar Hotel Budapest has off icially opened its doors recently. Managed by Mellow Mood Hotels, the hotel building was renovated by Párizs Property Ltd. according to strict historic preservation rules.

PÁRISI UDVAR HOTEL BUDAPEST OPENS THE SOLE HYATT HOTEL IN HUNGARY

The 110-room boutique hotel, which is the fourth property in Europe to join the ‘The Unbound Collection by Hyatt’, is set to fascinate Hungarian and international guests with lavish interior design solutions unique in the global hospitality industry. The site originally gave home to Budapest’s first modern shopping mall, inspired by the Parisian ‘Passage des Panoramas’. Later, replacing the shopping mall, Budapest’s Central Savings Bank built its iconic headquarters in Beaux-Arts architecture style, featuring Gothic, Moorish and Art Nouveau elements. With ornately decorated majolica tiles, Murano glass mosaics and a stunning luxferprism crystal cupola, the new hotel revives the bustling atmosphere of the early 20th century.

“We believe that a new era begins in Hungarian tourism with the opening of Párisi Udvar Hotel Budapest,” Zuhair Awad and Sameer Hamdan, owners of Mellow Mood Hotels say, referring to bringing the Hyatt brand to Hungary. “This hotel represents Hungary’s impressive architecture and craftsmanship. We are very proud to re-open this remarkable and iconic property and to give it back to Budapest and its residents, with its original beauty restored.”

Features The hotel’s restaurant named Párisi Passage Café & Brasserie is located within the iconic passage, evoking the vibrant atmosphere of the turn-of-the-century cafés in the daytime, and transforming into a lively bar with piano music at night. The restaurant combines international and Hungarian flavors, for the enjoyment of both Hungarian and foreign guests. The passage also hosts specialist shops, accessible from the square. The hotel features a Club Lounge and four distinctive multifunctional meeting and event spaces spanning 300 square meters, which can accommodate up to 160 people. The hotel’s Zafir Spa features an infrared room, a steam room, a Finnish sauna, an ice well, and offers hydro-massage, body and face treatments, nail and beauty services, using Adrienne Feller and Janssen cosmetics. In addition, guests have 24-hour access to a fitness center.

Párisi Udvar Hotel Budapest’s upscale and spacious guestrooms, including 18 luxurious suites, are furnished according to international Hyatt standards, which places great emphasis on design.

One of the key requirements is the 'Bedding Concept', which guarantees the most comfortable and relaxing sleeping experience possible: the use of synthetic materials, among others, is prohibited and only the best quality down pillows and quilts are allowed. In addition, even the material of the upholstery and the cladding is specified, so only wool carpets and marble bathroom fixtures have been used in the rooms. On the top floor, the spacious (130- and 290-square-meter) Budapest and Paris Residences provide guests with a stunning view of the city and an unbeatable hospitality experience.

VERITAS WINEBAR PÁRISI UDVAR HOTEL BUDAPEST, DÁVID HARANGOZÓ, VERITAS WINEBAR

1074 Budapest, Dohány utca 58-62. • +36 30 471 0748 • www.veritaswinebar.hu

VERITAS WINEBAR WAS OPENED BY ONE OF THE OLDEST wine traders in Hungary. Designed by Viktor Csap, the interior is very chic, witty and eclectic – this is truly the most sophisticated wine bar in the hip Jewish Quarter. The two-level bar’s atmosphere is relaxed, the service is casual, but professional. The kitchen serves small plates and snacks, and more substantial, gorgeous mains, too, including artisan, home-made delicacies and superfoods.

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– Duck liver paté, Tokaj wine jelly – Grilled trout fillet, sugar peas, buttered potato – Rosé Duck breast, salty lavender sour cherry pie – Poppy seeds dumplings, vanilla sauce A U G U S T

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wine

EGER WINE REGION PRESENTS SIGNATURE BOTTLE DESIGN

To distinguish the most prestigious wines of Eger, the wine region is proud to present its own special bottle, to be launched this summer. The design was inspired by a traditional local bottle.

“At last year’s Bikavér Festival, MP Zsolt Nyitrai announced that in cooperation with the Egri Borműhely (Eger Wine Workshop), a special bottle would be developed following the example of so many other wine regions, hopefully with similar success. A lot of work and long negotiations were needed to realize the plan but in less than a year we have managed to get to the production stage with the assistance of the Eger Municipality and the Orosháza Glass Factory,” reveals Gergő Soltész, President of the Egri Borműhely. One of the most important events of Eger (and of Hungary) was the siege of the Castle of Eger in 1552, when the Hungarian defenders successfully repelled the attacks of the conquering Ottoman army. The date and the event are essential parts of the cultural and historical heritage of Eger and this is honored and commemorated by the Eger wine region bottle with its inscription ‘1552 Eger'. The shape was inspired by an old, almost forgotten Bikavér bottle used in the 1930s. Only a handful of these are left scattered in the local cellars. This design was the starting point for the Egri Borműhely members. To conform to modern norms, the shape was a little updated, the color changed and each bottle comes with the aforementioned inscription. The intention of Egri Borműhely members was to present a bottle that is immediately recognizable and so provides visual assistance for customers looking for Eger wines of superior quality. To qualify for the application of the new bottle, a wine must be made in the wine region and pass the blind test of the local wine assessment jury. The eligible categories are white and red wines, single varietal wines and blends, and the two major brands of the region Egri Csillag and the only ‘Hungarikum’ red wine: Egri Bikavér. The only criteria is to conform to the product description of ‘Egri Superior’ and ‘Grand Superior’. This initiative is open to any local winery that intends to join and can meet the strict requirements. Minimalizing the impact of winemaking on the environment is high on the agenda of Egri Borműhely members: reducing bottle weight was to decrease their carbon footprint and to make another step towards sustainability.

Eger Wine Workshop The Egri Borműhely was founded by ten winemakers (Bolyki Vineyards and Winery, Egri Csillagok Plc., Eszterházy Károly University, Gál Tibor Winery, Juhász Testvérek Winery, Ostoros Family Winery, Petrény Winery, St. Andrea Vineyards and Winery, Thummerer Vineyards and Winery, Tóth Ferenc Winery), committed to sharing their ideas and working towards a common goal. It was clear to them that united they can go further and raise the profile of the Eger Wine Region. The direction they envisioned was to develop their wine ranges, to finetune the existing brands and to establish the standards for the highest wine category. In practical terms, this means the strengthening of Egri Bikavér, increase the market share of Egri Csillag, reframing Szépasszony Valley, the creation and introduction of a special Eger bottle and commitment to make local wines more attractive to younger customers.

Rosé in vogue A special variety Taste Nagygombos Gamay Noir Rosé at MyWine wine bar.

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BUSAKATTILAFOTO, GÉZA TALABÉR

(Budapest, District 5, Arany János Street 16.)

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