The National Economy Ministry has requested HUF 3bn from the 2013 central budget to establish trading houses to support Hungary’s opening towards eastern markets and to boost SME exports, daily Magyar Nemzet said on Monday.
In another move related to the opening to the east, the economy ministry modified its structure as of July 1, state secretary of the National Economy Ministry Roza Nagy said, setting up 16 new departments for eastern countries to help Hungarian companies doing business there.
The government will discuss a draft of a bill on trading houses in a first reading on Wednesday, Ms Nagy told the paper.
The central, Budapest-based organisation of the new system of trading houses and the first outlet, based in Azerbaijan, could be established in the autumn, the paper added.
The central organisation would be a small company owned by the National Economy Ministry and the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The trading houses, to be established one by country, and to involve domestic and foreign banks, the Eximbank as well as companies, chambers familiar with the given area.
