TABLE OF CONTENTS

CONTENTS

1. situation, significance of smal enterprises

Industrial and service strategy
Cooperation and network farms
Reconstruction of skills and attitudes
Significance of small enterprises at home and in Europe
The situation of small and medium enterprises at the Millennium
Comparison of small and large enterprises
SWOT analysis of Hungarian small enterprises
Number and composition of enterprises
Operational conditions of successful small enterprises

2. network farms and small enterprises

Industrial parks
Technological incubator chamber
Regional innovation transfer centres
Logistical service centres
Positions, trends
The concept of logistical services centres, their role in logistics, in farms
Construction of a network of logistical service centres in Hungary
The clusters
Fundamental characteristics of clusters
Various forms of clusters
Local sources of industrial competition
The effect of clusters on competitiveness of enterprises
Farm development based on clusters
The effect of clusters on competitiveness of regional economies
Clusters in the OECD
Clusters of furniture industries in North East Italy
Advantages of clusters, their regional effects and establishment
Clusters in Hungary
The Pannon vehicle manufacturing cluster
The classification of domestic clusters and cluster law
The role of local authorities in local development of enterprises

3. strategical planning of land development

4. marketing in regions and settlements

Marketing in settlements
Target groups of marketing in settlements
The process of marketing in settlements

5. organisations playing a role in the development of small and medium enterprises

Chambers of commerce, trade associations
Services, consultants, financiers

6. national supporting system for small entreprises, the “nektar”

The philosophy of NEKTAR
The aim of development
Precedent and motivation of development
Characteristics of the situation before and after establishment of NEKTAR and its organisation
Tasks of NEKTAR and its regional organisation
Functions and operations of NEKTAR
Calculated costs of development and financing
Investments and costs
Financing
Effects to be expected, results
Dual effects
NEKTAR accepts a part
Numerical results

7. case study of four industrial parks

Industrial parks in Hungary
Characteristics of industrial parks
Industrial parks in the North Hungarian Region and in Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County
Some characteristics of the North Hungarian Region
Industrial parks in the North Hungarian Region
Brief Introduction to the North Plane Region
Industrial parks in the North Plane Region
The characterisation of industrial parks studied
The industrial park in Gyöngyös
The industrial park in Jászárokszállás
The industrial park in Rétság
The industrial park in Sátoraljaújhely
Comparison of industrial parks studied

source materials

Small enterprises as key elements of land development

Gergely, Sándor

In the interest of successful Hungarian renewal, mechanisms are urgently needed for helping to compensate personal, ethnic and regional disadvantages in privately owned farms without of course reducing competitiveness. Indeed only an effective enhancement of competitiveness may give the chance for levelling regional differences in the country. To build a successful nation the today’s state has to arrange for the development of a national strategy, the execution of which she has to coordinate and organise after having set up the right initial conditions. The main concern of the last decade in the Hungarian countryside has been excessive unemployment beside low employment rates. While in the autumn of 2005 the unemployment rate for the whole country was 6.9%, in some regions and settlements the figure was 30%. If this is the main worry of these settlements then the breakthrough starts with the creation of new workplaces. Small enterprises are the most efficient way of workplace creation as they employ already two thirds of the domestic workforce. The situation is similar in the EU. Clearly a fundamental increase in employment leads to living conditions that satisfy people’s present requirements.

Small enterprises may be best incorporated into today’s farms’ circulation by establishing them as elements of farming networks. We discuss world tendencies in this sphere of economic activities and the situation in Hungary.

In this work we prove that the role of small enterprises has been revalued in regional land development especially in improving the prospects of those in disadvantageous situations. Furthermore we also prove that the breakthrough (under unreasonable legal control) has not materialized so far mainly because the activities of small entrepreneurs have not been assisted by an appropriate consultancy service, a rational logistics system representing solely their interest. The National System for Supporting Small Entrepreneurs (NEmzeti Kisvállalkozás TÁmogató Rendszer) or NEKTAR, which we have designed may fulfil this role.

NEKTAR is meant to manage a decisively important element of a national attempt to place Hungarian agriculture on a lasting and sustainable developmental path; it is a research-teaching-organising-consultancy service aimed at supporting the activities of small enterprises. NEKTAR actively helps small enterprises to join farm networks.

According to our proposals NEKTAR should not be established as new governmental offices, but should be formed from the already operational organisations for supporting small enterprises by purposefully merging and reorganising them. The requirement is for a service based cooperation between equal partners for the mutual good (hardly a well known concept in this country).

NEKTAR’s operations cover all private or small enterprises located outside the capital employing less than 50 people. The operations may directly affect three hundred thousand small enterprises, involving about six or seven hundred thousand workers (entrepreneurs and their employees) and altogether one and a half to two million people if their families are taking into account.

NEKTAR may decisively affect the success of land development, enabling the preservation of fifty to sixty thousand workplaces and the creation of fifteen to thirty thousand new places yearly and may contribute to the annual GDP by as much as 0.2% to 0.4%. The scheme may be financed partly from EU funds, national budget and increasingly from self-generated revenues.

In the last chapter our work describes in detail four industrial parks making vital contributions to employment and competitiveness in a city and its small region.

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