On 16 July, a webinar was held on developing national cluster strategies within the Accelerate GDT project of the Interreg Europe program. Oleksiy Bakhtinov, Reforms Delivery Office at the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, Oleksandr Yurchak, CEO of UCA, and Anita Szabo, Head of Cluster Policy, Office of the Prime Minister of Hungary, attended the discussion.
Anita Szabo presented an overview of the current state of Hungarian clusters and their development process. She noted that Hungary’s new cluster strategy, developed over two years, has high hopes for success.
Today, there are 26 accredited clusters in Hungary with 1028 members, of which 944 are companies. Cluster members actively engage in research, development, and innovation, collaborating with universities, research institutes, municipalities, and hospitals.
Hungary’s cluster strategy includes the following main objectives:
- Adapting cluster policy to accelerate the green and digital transition
- Improving corporate digital responsibility and digitalization
- Business development through inclusiveness
- Introducing new methods to improve the potential for innovation in manufacturing
Main characteristics of Hungarian clusters:
- High level of innovation
- Cooperation between large companies, universities, and SMEs
- Significant contribution to the national economy, including exports and employment
- Clusters are important for reducing territorial disparities and facilitating technological and knowledge transfer to SMEs
Geographical distribution
Clusters are active in less developed regions, contributing to economic development and reducing Budapest’s central role. They help create a favorable economic environment for new and existing businesses.
Strategic objectives
- To improve cooperation between different clusters
- Supporting innovation and developing international visibility
- Ensure participation of new players in cluster initiatives
- By 2030, 10% of total value added should be generated by cooperative economic players
Recommendations for the Cluster Strategy
- Promote innovative cooperation
- Strengthening the culture of motivation and cooperation
- Create an appropriate policy and regulatory environment
- Making business cooperation attractive
Anita Szabo emphasized the importance of clusters for economic development and the need for further cooperation between economic operators to achieve common goals.
You can listen to the webinar recording in Ukrainian here, in English here.