Export assistance in the SME sector

At the end of March the Budapest Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BKIK) and the Hungarian National Trading House (MNK) welcomed the representatives of exporting Hungarian SMEs to the closing event of their export assistance roadshow. About 650 SMEs learned about export opportunities at various stops of the roadshow and the services offered by the new governmental organisation the Hungarian National Trading House, which was established to do something about the fact that only 20 percent of Hungary’s export comes from SMEs; on non-EU markets this ratio is 24 percent. The government’s goal is to increase this ratio to 30 percent in a few years time. Hungarian National Trading House was founded one year ago and it set out to sign agreements with similar organisations in 40 countries (mainly in Asia, Africa, the Near East and South America) by 2015, so that later they can help to match Hungarian SMEs with trading partners from various countries. At the moment MNK has trading houses in 8 non-EU countries (e.g. Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey), offering complex services to Hungarian SMEs. In addition to this EXIM Bank offers low interest rate loans to SMEs producing for export to make them competitive at international level. These loans don’t only focus on helping manufacturers and/or exporters but also take into consideration the interests of suppliers.