Tighter focus on hot issues

It pays to belong, AmCham Chief Executive Officer Irisz Lippai-Nagy and President Ferenc Pongrácz tell Diplomacy&Trade. What we have also learnt is that
AmCham is doubling its effort to represent members' interests and to have more impact on certain issues.

AmCham issued its first Policy Agenda Roadmap in June 2015, "To achieve a 10-spot World Competitiveness Ranking improvement in 10 years for Hungary with CEE.” How will that help a) your members and b) Hungary?

Our Policy Agenda is principally based on the pillars of the World Competitiveness Ranking (WCR) report. AmCham chose those areas where it is most critical that they be improved, and where the biggest impact can be made. The four focus areas are: Investment; Talent; Innovation; and Healthy Nation. When selecting these focus areas, we also took into account the areas of expertise of our members and of course the interest of the country. Let me give you an example. For instance in the area of healthcare there is a plethora of issues to deal with, many of these are discussed heavily in the media and in the parliament. These issues are important to the country, however, many of these we cannot influence. Therefore we picked a different perspective and identified commitments, where our membership can contribute. As our members represent 160,000 employees, launching an employee health awareness program tis Fall - the 10,000 steps initiative - was a natural choice.

How is the Policy Agenda different from the heavily researched Position Briefs you have previously presented to your business community?

Our primary goal with the Policy Agenda was to create a roadmap for our advocacy efforts for the next two years. We have been actively representing member interest in the past 26 years in a multitude of matters; however, we felt that a streamlined itinerary will help us concentrate efforts for better results.

In order to support the Policy Agenda we created our so-called ‘Policy Task Forces’. These professional groups – incorporating the brainpower of our 360 expert members – drive the Policy Agenda commitments in close cooperation with the AmCham Hungary Board of Directors and our Committees.

The Position Briefs are more in-depth papers on one specific topic. We have published 11 PBs to date and plan to continue this tradition in the coming years.

You said in your Journal in May 2015 that AmCham is operating from a new playbook now, with a tighter focus on policy advocacy: how will that translate into the way you communicate with the various departments of the Hungarian Government?

With the very clear focus and mandate that we have now with the Policy Agenda, we can identify more easily the relevant government partners for each area – competitiveness, investment, talent, innovation, healthy nation - and also it is more clear for government when to contact us. Our strategy is not to complain, but to cooperate. We are looking for long-term partnerships, believing that our common interest is to help Hungary become an even better place for investment, than it is today.

To date we have signed a strategic partnership with the Ministry of Justice and the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency and have an active working relationship with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Ministry for National Economy and the Ministry of Human Capacities.

What are the hotter issues that are coming to the surface in your Business Forums, which put your members face to face with ministers and other key Government representatives?

These forums have been arranged by AmCham since the early 1990s and we have had the privilege hosting all prime ministers, dozens of ministers and also international business leaders, including Bill Gates and Jack Welch. Our guests are invited to speak on a topic pertinent to the Hungarian economy and answer questions posed by the participants. It is typical for members to pose questions; however, these meetings always have a friendly atmosphere. To give you a more specific answer, at recent Business Forums members were interested in the newly introduced EKAER system; the need to boost financial education in the country; the government’s perspective on the growth potential of the service sector and how the government will guarantee transparency in state-owned enterprises.

What is AmCham's policy stand on exposing and combating corruption in either private or public spheres? And how is the Government cooperating with AmCham in this area?

Let me start by saying that as an organization we are guided by the American business values of competitiveness, transparency, free enterprise and open partnership with all stakeholders and we advocate for these values to be shared by all members and partners. Over a decade ago we established the Corporate Governance Committee (today: Governance & Transparency Committee) to champion these efforts, with the mission to “improve the governance, transparency and integrity of non-profit, private and public sector practices…”. The G&T Committee has created and manages numerous projects that support its mission, for instance the annual Integrity Conferences, Corporate Governance Glossary or Guidance and Principles for Unlisted Companies in Europe.

AmCham, and especially its G&T and Regulatory Committees continuously monitor related legislation, such as for example the public procurement act. This Spring, the Prime Minister’s Office has prepared a new public procurement legislation, which AmCham has reviewed in the public consultation period and prepared an AmCham position in which we suggested several modifications to the text in order to increase the transparency impact of the new legislation.

The G&T Committee’s members have been represented in the Government’s regular anti-corruption working group meetings (Open Government Partnership) since 2012, which is a partnership organized by the Ministry of Interior’s National Protective Service.

Also, in 2012 AmCham presented to the government its opinion about the draft anti-corruption program.This welcomes the fact that the government regards corruption as a significant danger to society and plans to take actions, however, it expresses that the proposed anti-corruption program does not take enough steps to deal with the fundamental problems.

What are they key alerts you advise potential American investors and companies looking to do business in Hungary - and how much such interest are you experiencing, either from large or small to medium companies?

Although AmCham is among the first contacts a new US or other international investor will look up when arriving to Hungary, but HIPA (Hungarian Investment and Trade Agency) is giving superb guidance to these companies, we come in at a later stage, usually helping them meet investors from the same sector or with similar issues. We have seen some large US companies show interest in coming to Hungary. However, we have seen just as many success stories when it comes to reinvestment: ALCOA, GE, GSI, National Instruments, MSD, Opel or Procter&Gamble, just to name a few of the many.