Budapest showed its new face at MIPIM 2009
8 Wednesday, April
Budapest chose MIPIM to announce its repositioning on the market, taking the opportunity offered by the crisis to adopt a new era of solid growth and innovation once again.
Cooperation of Business, State and Municipality
This year, for the first time, Budapest Business Region (a cluster of 20 real estate companies), the City of Budapest and the Hungarian Investment and Trade Development Agency set up a joint booth at MIPIM. Through this new type of cooperation between the state, the municipality and the private sector, Budapest has been raised to the level of the most significant European cities of the fair once again.
Budapest – an attractive location for End Users
As the exclusive sponsor of an End Users’ Lunch organized by MIPIM, Budapest has got a unique chance to raise interest in the region by stressing its advantages and opportunities in the presence of the top 80 End users and Directors of Corporate Real Estate, such as Microsoft, GE, REGUS and others. To help to make a decision, Hungarian Minister for National Development and Economy, Mr Gordon Bajnai gave a 7-minute speech about Hungary’s prospects with the IMF loan and a stimulus package of 7 billion Euros, as well as about the initial achievements of the crisis management, including a 6-percent budget deficit and 30 acts to speed up processes amended by regional service centres. „Hungary’s government has started structural changes not only to recover from the economic crisis but to earn a much better position than we had before the crisis”, added Mr Bajnai. Budapest Mayor, Gábor Demszky also gave a short speech and invited all participants to visit Budapest.
One of the most popular and busy places at MIPIM
The Budapest stand was one of the most popular and busy spots of the MIPIM exhibition area, hosting 4 panel discussions and an international press conference during the first 3 days of MIPIM. At each panel, attracting an audience of 100-200 people, representatives of BBR, ITDH and the Municipality of Budapest addressed the issues of the Budapest Region’s recent development and crisis management strategies, supported by the most attractive benefits of investing into Hungary. The impressive parameters and the visitor-friendly layout of the booth served as a solid basis for people to experience Budapest’s optimism and the power of real business opportunities residing in the Budapest Business Region. Hungarian developers were represented by 4 major projects of the Budapest Business Region: DunaCity, Talentis Group, Duna Spirit and TóPARK.
The Centre of Innovation
“Innovation” – this was the central message of the Hungarian stand. Budapest introduced itself as the home of the Light Transmitting Concrete, the Rubik’s Cube and the headquarters of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, calling investors and developers to participate in bridging the crisis with innovation. In addition to the events, the message was spread by a takeaway brain teaser puzzle and the world-famous Rubik’s Cube. Gömböc, the first known homogenous object with one stable and one unstable equilibrium point, also invented in Budapest, was presented on the stand as a symbol of Hungary’s innovative talent.
According to the wide range of feedbacks, Budapest, debuting at this year’s MIPIM as the Centre of European Innovation, has successfully proven that even in a pessimistic economic environment it is an attractive, dynamic and innovative global destination.
