The Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency HIPA participated as the Hungarian co-exhibitor at MIPIM, the world’s most prestigious real estate exhibition in Cannes, France. The municipalities of Kaposvár and Békéscsaba successfully presented themselves to the public, while Debrecen, which has been a participant for years, was ranked among the TOP10 in the Financial Times’ fDi Intelligence ranking. The positive perception of the Hungarian investment environment, the unbroken confidence and the growing interest of foreign investors was also demonstrated by the fact that His Excellency Georg von Habsburg-Lorraine, Hungary’s Ambassador to France, was the guest of honour in the main programme of MIPIM, and he gave a very well received presentation titled “Navigating Growth in the CEE Region: Trends, Opportunities, and Innovations”.
Since 2016, HIPA has participated in the world’s most prestigious real estate exhibition, MIPIM, every year. Representing Hungary, HIPA demonstrated Hungarian real estate developments, industrial parks and investment opportunities together with exhibiting Hungarian real estate development companies and municipal leaders. This year, 90 countries with more than 20,000 professional participants from all over the world were represented at the conference, which took place from 11-15 March 2024. The value of the delegated represented assets came to over €4 trillion.
The guest of honour of the Hungarian stand, His Excellency Georg von Habsburg-Lorraine, Ambassador of Hungary to France, gave a presentation titled “Navigating Growth in the CEE Region: Trends, Opportunities, and Innovations” in the main programme of MIPIM. In his presentation, Mr. Habsburg-Lorraine stressed that Hungary has been following a successful economic policy strategy to promote investment, and this work has resulted in record-breaking investment volumes year after year. He added that Hungary has become a meeting point for Western and Eastern companies, and in this spirit many successful partnerships have been established in Hungary.
Békéscsaba, Debrecen and Kaposvár were represented as attractive Hungarian investment locations. In Cannes, Debrecen was ranked among the TOP 10 cities in Europe in the Financial Times’ fDi Intelligence ranking in the category of the best FDI strategy, while Békéscsaba and Kaposvár made their debuts this year. Zsombor Borhi, the deputy mayor of Kaposvár, said that they had gained a lot of experience, held fruitful negotiations and built relationships with renowned real estate developers.
The official programme of the Hungary stand was complemented by several panel discussions. In the panel “Driving Force For Industrial (Hungarian FDI Landscape)”, Dávid Hegyesi, Director of Supply and Site Development of HIPA, said that the investment sentiment for Hungary is unbroken, with investment volumes doubling last year to more than €13 billion in 2022. He added that there are many well-prepared locations for investors coming to Hungary and HIPA is confident that even more investors will choose the southern part of the country in the future.
In the closing programme of the “Business Opportunities in a New Reality – Investment Markets in CEE and Hungary”, András Jánossy, HIPA’s Director of Communications said that, as in many other regions of the world, Europe has also experienced negative FDI trends in 2023, and only a few countries including Hungary were able to show positive improvements in their investment performance. Regarding the Hungarian FDI targets, he added that the priority is to develop the southern regions of the country and improve its investment attractiveness. Hungary also aims to attract more R&D projects and high value-added investment.
Hungary’s presence at MIPIM 2024 was organised by the IFK Real Estate Developers Roundtable Association, with exhibitors as the following: Debrecen, Kaposvár, Békéscsaba, Wing, HelloParks, IGPARK, ATENOR, Grandum and CBRE, in addition to HIPA.
