Debrecen4U April 2, 2026

EDC Debrecen Launches New Programme to Help Local SMEs Enter Foreign Markets

In order to facilitate the entry of local small and medium-sized enterprises into foreign markets, EDC Debrecen Urban and Economic Development Centre is launching a new programme. At Wednesday’s forum, representatives of the SME sector in Debrecen and its catchment area were given an overview of export development subsidies and services supporting access to international markets.

Debrecen’s economic development has entered a new phase, and local small and medium-sized enterprises can also benefit from the opportunities this presents: they may become suppliers to global companies, but can also independently appear with their products in markets abroad.

The performance of the SME sector, which employs the majority of the local workforce, is therefore crucial for the entire city, emphasised Deputy Mayor Lajos Barcsa on Wednesday. “A city’s economic strength is not measured by how many large corporations come here, but by how much its own businesses can strengthen. That is why, for us, supporting small and medium-sized enterprises is not a side issue – it is economic strategy,” he said.

“The city provides multifaceted support to the SME sector: alongside the supplier programme, EDC Debrecen will now also launch a programme to support SMEs in entering foreign markets,” announced Managing Director Zoltán Pécskay. He added that they continuously analyse the business environment in order to provide increasingly effective support for enhancing the competitiveness of the SME sector, an important element of which is facilitating the exchange of experience.

“There are also pioneering local companies in terms of entering foreign markets that already have considerable experience to share, and I believe this can be highly credible if we can learn from one another and share good practices or present examples showing that, yes, it is possible to achieve success in foreign markets from Debrecen as well,” he said.

This effort is also supported by the diplomatic service and the Hungarian Export Promotion Agency, said Katalin Bihari, Deputy State Secretary of the relevant ministry, at the SME foreign market forum. “We strive to assist you with professional consultancy tailored to your individual needs, and we do so by involving and drawing on the foreign economic attaché network, supporting you from the very first step of entering foreign markets through to building connections and finding distributors, depending on your level of export readiness,” she said.

At the joint event of EDC and the export promotion agency, representatives of the SME sector in Debrecen and its catchment area were given an overview of the steps to successful entry into foreign markets, the available support, and the various services that facilitate access to international markets.

Source and photo credit: dehir.hu