Institutions

Chambers of commerce and industry in Hungary have a long history: their traditions run back over more than 150 years. Currently the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce Industry (HCCI) operates as an “umbrella-organisation”, incorporating and co-ordinating the activities of 23 regional chambers on national level. Its voluntary membership is made of over 20 thousand businesses from the commercial, industrial, handicraft and services sectors representing both companies and self-employed entrepreneurs.

The HCCI’s main tasks include fostering the development of the economy, promoting fair market practices and representing the joint interests of those conducting business activities. These activities are intended to strengthen the Hungarian business community, primarily the SME sector, and to increase their competitiveness on both the domestic and international markets. The introduction of a compulsory chamber registration system in 2012, enabling the HCCI to build a database containing the data of about 600,000 business entities, was a major contribution to improving the transparency of the economy.

In addition to its traditional tasks, increasing Hungarian exports by improving the SME’s market positions at EU and international levels, as well as fostering capital exports have also become focal objectives for the Chamber. The HCCI’s foreign trade strategy follows the key elements of the Government’s “Opening to the East” and “Opening to the South” policies and is implemented in close co-operation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and its agencies, the National Trading House Zrt., the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA) and the integrated export-import bank and credit insurance agency (EXIM).

International activities are focussed in the HCCI-administered bilateral committees, business councils and joint chambers offering networking forums, information and business promotion services to companies interested in a particular country or region. To assist Hungarian entrepreneurs in exploring new partnership opportunities the Chamber organizes business forums, B2B meetings and trade missions. It also offers extensive information and consulting services. The HCCI’s online Export Directory, launched two years ago, is one of the most comprehensive online databases of Hungarian exporters, freely accessible for all foreign companies who are looking for specific products or services from verified Hungarian manufacturers and service providers.

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