The promise of growth

Hungarian National Trading House (MNKH) Zrt. has announced its merger with its affiliate, the Hungarian Trade Development and Promotion Kft. and the new company will operate under the name of Hungarian Export Development Agency Nonprofit Zrt. The new company will have a smaller team, fewer offices and five regional centres. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has informed that the agency will coordinate the work of region- and sector-focused export development and promotion centres.

This transformation reflects a very important realisation: supporting the exporting of SMEs doesn’t work in a market-based, competitive fashion – this activity simply can’t be profitable. MNKH Zrt. had offices in 41 countries, spending billions in just six years without any spectacular result. With the new agency the focus is on being a non-profit company. We can hope that supporting SMEs’ entering new markets will bring profit but it is unlikely, the Hungarian economy can only benefit from this type of work if the performance of companies improves, and thanks to this the government’s revenue from taxes will grow. //