National consultations have been launched on the draft version of the National Research, Development and Innovation Strategy 2020, which had been prepared by the Ministry for National Economy after a broad coordination process with experts. The opportunity of sending comments and proposals on the draft strategy available at kormány.hu or expressing relevant opinions in person is now open to the wider public at the one-month discussion forum lasting until 4 December 2012 in Budapest, Debrecen, Győr, Pécs and Szeged.

Supporting research, development and innovation (RDI) is always a long-term investment into the future. The key objective of the National Innovation Strategy elaborated under the expert  supervision of the Ministry for National Economy, which is open for debate as of now, has been to boost RDI investments and as a result create a more dynamic and competitive economy. The draft strategy defines it as a primary goal to increase RDI investments to 1.8 percent of GDP by the end of this decade. In addition, it aims to establish a background where institutions, companies and innovative enterprises alike active in the RDI sector can blossom and flourish.

The draft strategy focuses on promoting, utilizing and transferring knowledge, and it aims to improve the RDI prospects of the entire private sector including SMEs as well as large companies. The draft also sets as a goal the large scale expansion of current RDI capacities. Among the objectives targeted by the strategy until 2020 are helping 30 significant, Hungarian R+D workshops make it to the global top league, 30 new R+D centers of multinational companies settle in Hungary, 30 medium-sized, technology-oriented domestic enterprises establish dominant positions in the Central Eastern European region as well as 300 small enterprises with a focus on research and development which are capable of rapid growth enter international markets.

The national consultation forum starting on 6 November 2012 will be held at one venue in Budapest and four in the countryside. At these occasions the key cornerstones, objectives and instruments of the strategy will be described, and highlighting various RDI fields, panel discussions will also be held at the different venues.

Simultainously, the official website of the Government provides the opportunity of commenting at an on-line forum at www.kormany.hu.

The draft version of the Research, Development and Innovation Strategy 2020 is available (in Hungarian) at this link.

(Prime Minister’s Office)