Serving Members and Partners Professionally

The French-Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI France Hongrie) celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2021. On this occasion, the President, László Károlyi and the Director, Ágnes Ducrot talked in the December issue of Diplomacy&Trade about the chamber, the anniversary and the services the organization offers to its members and partners.

The Chamber's website says: ‘Get your business up and running with the French-Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’. As the President points out, “a 30-year anniversary is always a good time to reflect on what has happened in that period and to renew ourselves in this changing world. We approached our members and asked them what they were interested in and building on that, feeding off the roots, we have taken forward what we have done well and what has been successful. In a nutshell, what we are doing and where we are going is to keep the existing values and the existing successful programs, but reshaping and reforming them to meet the challenges of today. One of these is digitalization in a changing world, and the other is the COVID imperative, which we are not happy to have, but which does affect how an event can be organized: in a web or a hybrid format.”

Professionals ready to help
Regarding the kind of partnership, the Chamber offers to its members and business partners, the Director highlights that for 30 years, the main objective of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry has been to build a network of business contacts and to provide its members and other companies with francophone interests with the opportunity to network. “This is still the case today: for French companies already here, for French companies not yet here and for Hungarian companies also interested in the French market. We try to build relationships quickly in an efficient and professional way, providing opportunities through our events and business development services.”
She adds that this became even more important three years ago, when CCI France Hongrie was awarded the sole representative role in the process accompanying the export activities of French companies through a French public concession tender. “In this way, we are the sole representatives of the French State here, supporting the export activities of French firms. Through our business development services, we provide them with market research, with qualified partner search, we find business partners for them here, we organize meetings – we were able to do this virtually during the pandemic –, we accompany them to meetings where we can interpret if necessary and we can further assist them in developing their business on the spot. We won this grant for a three-year period, which is now up but has been extended for two years until 2023. We have been doing this activity for 30 years, so our colleagues have an absolute wealth of experience in this professional field. They are native speakers of both French and Hungarian, they know both the Hungarian and the French market, they know the French business specifics and they can effectively help both the Hungarian and the French partner.”

For a more visible chamber
László Károlyi mentioned in an interview this summer that he wants to "build an agile, stronger, more visible chamber." As to how he intends to achieve this, he says he believes that any professional association only makes sense and that members of different orientations will only join a professional association if they get value. “On the one hand, our chamber can strengthen French-Hungarian business relations, we can help in things that companies don't have the opportunity or the insight to do. We would like to strengthen these processes by providing up-to-date and useful information to our members, while at the same time broadening the scope of the Chamber's interests, which have so far focused mainly on French interests and investments Hungary.” Reaffirming the words of the CCI France Hongrie Director, he adds that “the Chamber's staff are very familiar with the French business community, so we can also help the other way round: for Hungarian companies that want to do business abroad, and mainly in France or in francophone areas. We want to do all this in a fast and very flexible way, as requested. We want to be visible, so that we can provide more companies with information that is otherwise more difficult for them to access today, but also so that this information and these opportunities are put on the table quickly and when they are needed.”

Predictability
As for the perception of the current investment environment in Hungary by French companies, the CCI France Hongrie President stresses that both France and Hungary face elections next spring, “and the business environment we see now and the feedback we get in May next year may change to some extent. I think the most important thing from a business point of view in an economic environment is predictability. Every business prepares a business plan based on certain premises, which has a short term and long-term outlook for taxation, for the development of the economy, for the development of wages. If there is uncertainty and a lot of change, then, it makes investors and businesses wonder what sort of ground they are on.” In his view, the Hungarian economy has performed predictably and securely in recent years, both in terms of general taxes and other regulations, “which means a much more stable environment than, say, five or ten years ago. It is a supportive environment, as evidenced by the recent announcement that three French companies will invest HUF 20 billion in Hungary in the next years.”

Keeping the Chamber work
The world health crisis – and the constraints it has brought with it – created challenges in most areas and the French Chamber is no exception. As the Director explains, they moved to digital solutions, organizing almost as many webinars, if not more, than in-person events in previous years: a total of 56 with 1,600 participants in 2020. “We did virtual factory visits and virtual B2B meetings, so we tried to bring all our previous activities into the virtual space. Last year, the publication ‘French Presence in Hungary’, which was published after seven years in 2020 and which actually maps French companies in Hungary, was a great success and was much missed. There are 491 French subsidiaries in Hungary today, making France the fourth largest investor in Hungary. We have had a strategic partnership with the Ministry of Justice since 2018 and a similar agreement with the Hungarian Export Promotion Agency (HEPA) signed in September 2020. These allow the creation and development of complementary and new services in the Chamber: we promote the export activities of Hungarian companies. Of course, we are also working very closely with the French Embassy, the Economic Department and each of its other sections, as well as with the French Institute. We are the professional partner and sole representative of the French export promotion agency Business France in Hungary. In addition, we are representatives of ‘Promosalons’, an exhibition organization and recruitment company, which means that we recruit visitors to French international exhibitions.”
On September 25, they held their prestigious Gala evening, ‘Jardin des Lumières’, in the beautiful garden of the Klebelsberg Castle in the Buda Hills. The festive year will be closed by a booklet of Success Stories to be presented at the Christmas party. “All of this is important, but the first and most important thing is to be the professional partner of French companies and in the long term, we should be the first thing they think of in the field of economic and commercial business development,” she concludes.