K&H: Creaking is the key to competitiveness

By: Trademagazin Date: 2023. 02. 28. 10:19

The innovation activity of Hungarian companies falls short of the required level and the European average – the EU published its innovation scoreboard in the second half of last year, which is in all respects consistent with the results of the survey behind the K&H innovation index. According to Balázs Németh, K&H’s head of innovation, this trend is not a cause for joy, since innovation would be the key to corporate competitiveness.

Last autumn, the European Commission published its 2022 European results list, which ranks and groups the EU member states according to 12 aspects and a total of 22 topics. Sweden is first in terms of innovation, but Belgium, Denmark, Finland – and as a new team member – the Netherlands are also at the forefront. The middle ground is followed by the so-called “emerging innovators”, i.e. the countries that are listed below 70 percent of the EU innovation average. With its performance of 69.8 percent, Hungary slips just a hair’s breadth into this “following” group, where its performance far exceeds that of the other group members: Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. The EU produces an average growth of 9.9 percent in the field of innovation, which is 2.8 percentage points behind the increase in Hungarian innovation activity, so the distance between the EU average innovation performance and Hungary’s similar performance is increasing.