Hungary’s policy for assisting innovative start-ups has made a successful debut in Sweden, Minister of State for Parliament and Economic Strategy Zoltán Cséfalvay told MTI, calling from Sweden following a Hungarian innovation forum.

The Minister of State emphasised that Hungarian presentations on the start-up development programme were received with great interest by Swedish participants.

He stressed that in 2014-2020 some HUF 140bn will be made avaialable for developing the Hungarian start-up scene.

At the forum, Hungarian start-ups also introduced themselves and through their own examples showed the progress which had taken place in this field over the past three-four years, he added.

The forum was held in Stockholm, which was one of the locations in European cities where presentations have been held thus far and which will be continued in the future. These events are expected to place Hungary, especially Budapest, on the European start-up map and to convince investors active in this field that Hungarian start-ups deserve their attention.

Ericsson Hungary was also present at the forum. The Sweden-based global conglomerate, which has a large development centre in Hungary employing some 1200 engineers, has been a good example for showing favourable opportunities Hungary is offering with regard to innovation cooperation between enterprises and universities.

The Minister of State noted that negotiations were also held with the company’s representatives on further development options in Hungary.

Zoltán Cséfalvay also said that at the forum and related meetings they also discussed that an incubation system, created for developing budding enterprises, has been operating successfully in Sweden and a similar one is under construction in Hungary. The Minister of State stressed that concerning this project Hungary would welcome the contribution of Swedish partners.

He also met with Sweden’s Minister of Trade Ewa Björling, and along with Swedish-Hungarian trade relations they reviewed current issues of European-American economic relations as well as topics related to digital economy.

(Ministry for National Economy)