How will artificial intelligence (AI) transform banking services, online commerce, urban development and agriculture? The professionals of the future could get answers to these questions at the National Meeting of Young Economists, which this time was hosted by the University of Debrecen.
FIKOT, or the National Meeting of Young Economists, is the most prestigious and one of the oldest events of the Youth Committee of the Hungarian Economic Society (MKT IB). The event, which has a history of more than three decades, is organized every year with the aim of providing young people interested in the economics profession with a meeting point and up-to-date professional information from here and beyond.
We are holding our conference for the 40th time after a break of several years. We always try to discuss current and future-oriented topics. The focus of this year’s meeting is on artificial intelligence, which to many still sounds like science fiction, even though nowadays there is no area of our lives that does not have a part in it at some level, the financial sector is no exception
– pointed out Szabolcs Mátrai, the chairman of the MKT IB.
The anniversary event was hosted by the Faculty of Economics of the University of Debrecen on the Böszörményi út campus, where more than a hundred participants came.
One of the missions of the Faculty of Economics, in addition to education and research, is to provide meeting opportunities for all those who are interested in the profession and want to learn about the latest trends. Many unexpected or difficult-to-predict negative events have occurred these days, just think of covid, the financial crisis and, among others, the current armed conflicts. For the time being, the changes that have been enthusiastically and positively received by most people – the rise of digitization, artificial intelligence, biotechnology – have also been and will be accompanied by significant reorganizations. In addition to the fact that the latter are expected to be able to significantly increase life expectancy at birth and the number of years spent in good health, they will fundamentally rearrange our lives in many areas. In addition to the teaching and research activities of the faculty, with events like today’s, we also serve to ensure that our students can deal with these changes in the best possible way
– said László Erdey, deputy dean of the Faculty of Economics, at the opening of FIKOT.
At the event, bank managers, analysts, and experts gave presentations on the topic, among which the thought-provoking presentations by Éva Hegedüs, Secretary General of the Hungarian Economic Society, and Aniko Szombati, the Executive Director responsible for digitalization and FinTech development of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank, were particularly inspiring. Additional presentations at the conference also enabled future professionals to receive first-hand information on issues and innovations affecting the financial sector.
Since 2014, the European Commission has been monitoring the digital development of member states through reports on the Digital Economy and Society Development Index (DESI). In the ranking of the 27 EU member states, our country is currently in 22nd place, which shows that we still have plenty to learn and room for improvement. That is why I am confident that at today’s meeting they will be enriched with new information that they will be able to use in practice
– emphasized András Nábrádi, president of the Hajdú-Bihar County Organization of the Hungarian Economic Society, professor of the Faculty of Economics.
The plenary lectures were followed by round table discussions in the afternoon, where the current affairs of the fintech sector, as well as innovations affecting banking services, online trade, urban development and agriculture were discussed.
(unideb.hu)
