Let us rejoice and be proud of ourselves, of the whole of Central and Eastern Europe. Two regions of Hungary are represented on the list, where alongside Dublin, Helsinki, Copenhagen, and Stockholm, we only find Central and Eastern European countries (of course, Berlin is also Germany’s capital in the meantime). Every statistical indicator can be criticized, the strength of its validity questioned, however, it is clear that according to the methodology of Eurostat statisticians, the main employer in our major cities is the high-tech sector. For drawing deeper conclusions, analysis would be needed. Other indicators describing the structure of the economy should be included in the examination, these should be compared with data describing the performance of the regions and the changes in their performance, and more serious spatial structure analyses would be worth examining… An attractive task, since one rarely encounters accessible analyses on the relationship between the economic structure and economic prosperity of EU regions - even scientific journals do not frequently publish contemporary analyses. (As a starting point, a few writings: on the impact of technological complexity, on the impact of knowledge networks, on entrepreneurial ecosystems – I could not suddenly find an article using post-2010 data analyzing the relationship between the significance of the high-tech sector and the economic performance of European regions). That is, what follows is a starting point that calls for further work.
The major cities of the region are integrated into the European and global division of labor at a high technological level. Our infrastructure, institutions, and policies create favorable conditions for high-level technological training. This may be one of the reasons why the region is continuously and successfully catching up with the Union as a whole. However, high-tech employment alone does not make us wealthy. On the one hand, the capital returns of many such jobs do not generate income or opportunities in the given city but in the European, American, or Asian headquarters of the parent company. On the other hand, expertise alone is not enough for high added value; equally important is the position within global value chains: (1) bargaining power vis-à-vis suppliers, (2) uniqueness, (3) access to the most advanced technologies, (4) capital necessary for business growth, (5) market access, and (6) managerial preparedness to implement all this.
The figure suggests that in Hungary, together with the other countries of the region, there is considerable further growth potential. The economic structure of our major cities, the knowledge of those working there is outstanding – it is worth working on how we can sell all this at its value. This goal designates two tasks: on the one hand, that our companies and the large corporate sites operating here can obtain better positions in value chains. On the other hand, that an increasing number of regional enterprises, building on the uniqueness of their services or products and/or their market weight, can develop a strategy to enter the club of companies that are not only able to follow the market but also to shape it in their own field.
Budapest has once again finished among the leading EU regions with the largest high-tech sector. In 2023 we took the silver medal, while in 2022, 2021, and 2020 we were gold medalists, and since 2018 we have had a stable place on the podium. And the significance of this is well illustrated by the fact that we are competing with 504 other regions.
Let us add that our Central Hungarian region was left out of the chart only due to an error by Eurostat’s graphic designers, since with its 10.6 percent value it ranks 9th among the 505 European regions. Pest County, meanwhile, is 25th in the overall ranking.
It is no coincidence that this statistic is watched with eagle eyes by every country’s economic policymakers. The high-tech sector is precisely where the best returns and profitability can be achieved, where the crème of the workforce is employed. To put it in terms we Hungarians can understand, this is the exact opposite of assembly plants. Hungary, therefore, is not an assembly plant but a high-tech powerhouse.
MCC Center for Enterprise Research
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