The Hungarian government will do everything in its power to help Hungary turn into not only a production but an innovation centre, Minister for National Economy Mihály Varga said at the general assembly of the Hungarian Association for Innovation.

The SME sector struggling in Hungary with a sharp rise in bankruptcies and a shattered structure of companies. That was one of the issues were addressed at the Portfolio CEE Private Equity & Corporate Finance conference in Budapest.

The Hungarian government projects 2.9% of GDP budget deficit for 2014 and over 3% economic growth for 2017 in its convergence program sent to the European Commission. The program was outlined to the press by Economics Minister Mihály Varga.

The European Commission is not suspending the payment of development funds for Hungary, but for now, Brussels will only pay the bills submitted by 15 April until every question about the country’s new tendering system is clarified.

The GKI-Erste economic sentiment index, which has been rising spectacularly for 18 months according to seasonally-adjusted figures in Hungary, has gone up in April and expectations reached their highest in more than 15 years.

At FinPro, Finland’s national trade, internationalization and investment development organization, the main line of activity is partner searching. In the recent Finland Focus of Diplomacy & Trade, the head of FinPro in Hungary talked about the organization.

The ambassadors of the V4 countries to the United States have made a plea to U.S. House Speaker John Boehner for the United States to export natural gas to Central and Eastern Europe to ease the region’s dependence of gas supply from Russia.

The British Business Centre, established with the cooperation of the British Embassy, the UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) and the British Chamber of Commerce in Hungary (BCCH) was officially aunched this Friday in downtown Budapest.

The British Chamber of Commerce in Hungary (BCCH), established in 1991, elected a new Chairman, Vazul Tóth at its Annual General Meeting in May last year. A recent issue of Diplomacy & Trade carried an interview with him.

The Chairmanship of the EU-Chambers of Commerce in Hungary has been taken over by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Hungary whose President, János Takács became the Chairman of the EU-Chambers of Commerce in Hungary.

The recent country focus section on the United Kingdom in Diplomacy & Trade featured the 'UK Trade & Investment' as an organization that adapts to changing circumstances in Hungary and internationally, using the ‘Britain Open for Business’ strategy.

The National Debt Management Agency says that on January 31, the central government debt amounted to HUF 22,842 billion (appr. EUR 75 billion), that is an increase of HUF 843.9 billion (3.8%) compared to the year-end debt of 2013.

“Hungary is ready to further strengthen the business relations with South Korea,” the Hungarian Minister of National Economy, Mihály Varga pointed out at the opening of the Korean Economic Cooperation forum in Budapest.

The Korean Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) established its Budapest office back in 1987, before the change of the social and economic system in this country. Its current director talked to Diplomacy & Trade in a recent interview.

Hungary’s general government consolidated gross debt at nominal value (or called the Maastricht debt) was 80.2% of GDP at the end of the third quarter of 2013, according to financial accounts data relesead by the National Bank of Hungary. (NBH).