With the participation of eleven countries, Minister for National Economy Mihály Varga opened the ministerial meeting of the Central European Initiative (CEI) in the Ministry for National Economy. The economic leaders of participating countries discussed, among others, the instruments of crisis management, issues of financial stability and economic growth as well as the strengthening of the competitiveness and global prospects of small and medium-sized enterprises.
The CEI has been one of the most significant and oldest partnership forums with 18 member countries. The forum aims to facilitate the Euro-Atlantic integration of non-EU countries and to channel experiences for them. Therefore, it has to be emphasized thacurrently out of the 18 member countries 10 are EU members, while 8 are outside the EU.
The participants of the meeting agreed that within the CEI the improvement of the role of SMEs shall be in the focus within the field of trade and investment relations, project-oriented approach and supplier relations. In addition, economic leaders discussed Hungarian economic policy tools utilized in crisis management, experiences, cooperation options in the field of economic stimulation and the subsequent coordination of joint action.
For Hungary this year is a special one which focuses on Central Europe, as Hungary holds the presidencies in two regional organizations. The country presides over the Central European Initiative in 2013 and it holds the presidency of the Visegrád Four as of 1 July for one year. The key objective of the Government is to add momentum to regional cooperation and strengthen economic relations in the period called “Central European Year”.
(Ministry for National Economy)
