For the first time, Debrecen hosted one of Hungary’s largest business festivals, Business Fest, outside of Budapest. The event featured over 100 speakers in 9 rooms discussing the most pressing issues facing the region.
One of the most important topics was the question of providing for the 20,000 new employees coming to the region. This issue was discussed by Deputy Mayor Lajos Barcsa, Nóra Racz, Cabinet Chief of the Debrecen Vocational Training Center, Éva Gombás, founder of Starge, and Viktor Göltl, CEO of WHC.
Their panel discussion revealed that in the coming years, both the city leadership of Debrecen and vocational training will focus on educating and developing the appropriate workforce, modernizing public transport, and coordinating real estate prices, as an extraordinary number of workers continue to flow into the area in the coming years.
“If we draw a 50-60 kilometer radius around Debrecen, we can employ about 60,000 citizens, and in the coming years, 20,000 are needed to fill the region’s labor demand. However, reality shows that due to competencies and a shortage of skilled labor, the actual number of employees is significantly lower. The region is not in an easy situation, but it is facing a huge decade, and both the population and the labor market will benefit from this opportunity,” highlighted Viktor Göltl.
In recent years, around 20,000 new jobs have been created in Debrecen, and this business boom is challenging urban development. The key issues are transportation and housing. These areas must be put on a growth path so that the city can become not only an industrial but also a business center. According to Deputy Mayor Lajos Barcsa, the business event can help in this.
“If these economic actors see that Debrecen is a very prosperous city with a prosperous economy – practically, business is booming – then we can say that the service sector players will also see that Debrecen is actually a growing city,” pointed out the deputy mayor.
In the afternoon, the focus was on blue-collar workers: Szilvia Gyarmati, business unit manager for physical labor leasing and mediation at WHC, Gyöngyi Kántor, HR director of Master Good, Katalin Kissné Sághegyi, HR manager of Melecs EWS GmbH, and Andrea Kelemen, HR Fest Agenda Creator, discussed whether it is worthwhile to employ workers from distant, third countries.
Based on WHC’s partner experience, the lower turnover and outstanding work morale of these employees can significantly improve production efficiency and productivity, so it can be a very recommended solution if the domestic workforce is not sufficient in number.
Debrecen has several advantages that can be exploited to become a business center – Zoltán Pécskay gave a presentation on this, highlighting the developed business infrastructure and the skilled workforce available locally.
“Debrecen is an economic powerhouse: there is a large, stable, modern economic base, which is now actually developing. Investments are currently underway and will really materialize and start in 1-2 years. The other thing is that Debrecen is an educational center, Debrecen has a century-old advantage of being a university city,” said the CEO of EDC Debrecen City and Economic Development Center.
Picure: illustration.
