Opening Up New Business Opportunities

Corporate leaders from Hungary and Israel met at a business forum in Budapest this October with representatives of 62 Hungarian companies and 36 firms from Israel participating at the event organized by the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and held in a conference room in the Puskás Arena soccer stadium. Over 150 business-to-business talks took place in the course of the day and a memorandum of understanding between the export promotion agencies of the two countries was also signed.

As the host of the forum, the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Péter Szijjártó (pictured on the right) welcomed the participants, highlighting bilateral economic cooperation in his opening address. The minister also acknowledged the important role played by Israeli investors in the Hungarian economy and welcomed the fact that bilateral cooperation was not hindered by any open political issues, and therefore everything is in place for the further development of economic relations for which Hungary provides a safe environment. "Cooperation between the two countries is no longer limited to the traditional areas, but has expanded to include completely modern economic areas: research and development, technological cooperation, space research and even the defense industry," he said. He also mentioned a few flagship projects, such as that of Continest Technologies, which is already participating in tenders with hopes of success to deliver foldable containers to the Israeli Defense Forces, and the Budapest-based IT and telecommunications company, 4iG, which has established a strong base in the defense and space industries. The third Hungarian company he called attention to was Palmi-Top, which supplies 97% of Israel's waterfowl imports.

Taking relations to new heights
The Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gideon Moshe Sa'ar welcomed the fact that the Israeli business delegation attending this forum was the largest ever to arrive in Hungary, “truly great group representing the best of Israeli innovation.”
He was of the view that Israel and Hungary have particularly friendly and close relations, and companies of the two countries complement each other and merge into one another’s activities. “Israel believes in Hungary and its economy, and we want to be part of your success. There are many Israeli companies and investors already operating here in Hungary, so we are not just starting this today, but taking it to new heights,” he pointed out.
He reiterated that the common goal is to double trade between the two countries by 2030. “Leading companies that have already proven themselves internationally, as well as young startups with the latest technology, are also here as are ones engaged in civil and defense innovation, with a view to doing business in the fields of cyber defense, the food industry, agriculture, energy and various technologies, which will increase our bilateral trade and open up new opportunities for both Israelis and Hungarians,” he stated, calling on Hungarians to do business with Israeli companies: “come to Israel and invest in Israel!”

Memorandum of understanding
In the presence of the two countries’ ministers of foreign affairs, a mutual support agreement was signed at the opening of the business forum by Katalin Bihari, Deputy State Secretary for External Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, and CEO of HEPA Hungarian Export Promotion Agency and Nili Shalev, the CEO of the Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute.

Government support opens doors
At the Hungarian-Israeli business forum, Diplomacy&Trade had the opportunity to talk to two members of the Israeli delegation.
Tomer Avnon is the President and owner of the Avnon Group, a global provider of defense and homeland security solutions. He says that his firm has supported the government of Israel and many other governments around the globe in the fields of homeland security and defense for the last 35 years. A member of the Group is dealing with anti-drone system and the other one is with an integrated system doing fusion of radars, electro-optics and sensors. “We understand that borders and critical infrastructure are major issues in Europe, and Hungary also. The government of Hungary is looking for new technologies to implement them but they want the dollars to stay in country, meaning the production will have to be done in Hungary – as far as I understand at least 65%. We are already talking with some local technology companies to find the right way to cooperate or even to take over. We are considering purchasing a local company in purpose to shortage the time to enter the local market,” he says.
He also stresses the importance of the government supporting events like this in Budapest. “Even the local authorities and companies treat you differently when you come with the government support and I believe that this forum will open a lot of doors.”

Mitigating communication risks
Benny Levy is the CEO and the co-founder of AccuBeat with the name referring to accuracy as it is technology company that designs, develops and manufactures highly accurate frequency and timing solutions, including Rubidium atomic clocks and GPS-disciplined products. Their products and solutions are used in critical applications worldwide, such as combat planes, UAVs, missile platforms, ground mobile vehicles, telecommunication networks and scientific research facilities.
He says that on the Hungarian market, they would like to find companies like banks or electricity companies to call their attention to possible risks. “We want to show them the problems they may have, things they don't even suspect. For instance, they should be aware that they are very sensitive to GPS/GNSS spoofing. One day something will crash and they don't know what happened. In prevention, we install our time firewall and then, they are protected from rivals or enemies using GPS spoofing to crash your systems.”