The Israeli-Hungarian Innovation Day held in Graphisoft Park Budapest provides the opportunity for Hungarian start-ups to get to know Israel’s research and innovation scene, as several Israeli start-ups introduce themselves and the management of various acknowledged Israeli and Hungarian enterprises make presentations.

At the opening of the discussion forum, Israel’s Ambassador to Hungary Ilian Mor emphasised in his keynote speech that the idea of Israeli-Hungarian partnership in the field of innovation technologies came up two years ago, and the proposal was immediately endorsed by the Ministry for National Economy and the National Innovation Office (NIH). After that, the elaboration of the programme was a joint effort.

The first Innovation Day is a good opportunity for young Hungarian entrepreneurs to meet with successful Israeli start-up investors and enterprises. The Ambassador underlined that the aim of the event is not only to present Israeli achievements, but passing on the spirit of innovation. The partnership is a win-win solution for both countries, he added.

Minister of State Zoltán Cséfalvay of the Ministry for National Economy said that it is crucial for Hungarian start-ups to adopt best practices. In Hungary, the EU’s Jeremie Programme plays a key role in the funding of domestic SMEs. The Programme subsidizes venture capital investment through 28 projects with funds totalling HUF 130bn. The technological incubator programme is one of the instruments of supporting innovation, for which applications may be submitted as of the first quarter of 2014.

In the opinion of the Minister of State, Hungary is currently facing two challenges in the field of R&D. One of them is the issue of turning an idea into a product or a business model. In the view of Zoltán Cséfalvay, the other challenge is how to prevent brain-drain as domestic start-ups appear on the global market and achieve a kind of knowledge transfer instead.
A working group has been set up to make Budapest the centre of Central and Eastern European start-ups by the end of the decade, he added.

He underlined that while Tel-Aviv comes as second on the global ranking of innovation centres after the Silicon Valley, Budapest is not present on the list of 20 countries. He also added that the Government’s goal is to see Budapest on this ranking. Accordingly, the Government will devote more than 700 billion forints to R&D&I in the coming EU fiscal period.

NIH Acting President László Korányi said he believes the timing of the event is excellent, as according to a recently published partnership agreement on industrial research and development, two funds with one million Euros each are made available for Israeli and Hungarian enterprises to establish and develop closer R&D relations.

The two countries share similarities in economic history: 30 years ago Israel was fighting hyperinflation and high budget deficit, while industrial companies were state-owned, László Korányi pointed out, whereas by now the country has become one of the most successful market economies in the world.

The President added that very many people have been working on transforming Hungary into a modern and flourishing market economy, including the NIH as representative of the Government. Korányi said the most powerful resource which Israel possesses – ahead of financial support and ideas – is the mindset of its people. Hungarians shall adopt this way of thinking and believe in themselves.

The Israeli-Hungarian Innovation Day is planned to be held each year. At this first event some 300 Hungarian participants got registered.

(Ministry for National Economy)