Deputy Mayor of Debrecen Lajos Barcsa announced that Debrecen has been ranked among the top 10 among smaller cities in the 2022/23 ranking of European cities of the future by fDi Intelligence. Debrecen was ranked eighth for its investment promotion strategy and was in the top 10 with cities such as Middlesbrough and Doncaster in England, Cork in Ireland, Braga in Portugal, and Lublin and Gdynia in Poland, he said.
The Financial Times analyzes and ranks European cities one year and then compiles a world list the following year. As Barcsa pointed out, Debrecen has thus been ranked among the best in terms of its investment promotion strategy for three consecutive periods.
The deputy mayor said that the economic situation during the epidemic was already reflected in this ranking, proving that Debrecen’s economy was crisis-resistant and even grew during the epidemic.
He stressed that local companies paid 20 percent more local taxes than originally planned and Debrecen received EUR 883 million worth of investments in 2021, which created 1,451 new jobs. Small and medium-sized enterprises have also implemented a number of new job-creating developments, he added.
According to the deputy mayor, the Debrecen 2030 urban development strategy proves that the city has a well-thought-out, long-term development concept. He pointed out that the Municipality of Debrecen has several partners in the development of the city’s economy, primarily the government and the university, but the Debrecen Vocational Training Center and the School District (Tankerület) also support the ideas.
Barcsa said that the arrival of companies is bringing more and more jobs to Debrecen. This has led to higher housing prices, to which the city is responding with its Tócóvölgy apartment building program.
Zoltán Póser, Managing Director of the EDC Debrecen City and Economic Development Center, said the city’s economy will continue to grow in the coming years. He pointed out that South Korea’s EcoPro BM is setting up a plant in Debrecen on 44 hectares, an area larger than the combined areas occupied by TEVA, NI Hungary and Schaeffler.
He said that it was very important for local SMEs to be able to work together with these large companies. An SME program was launched and the SME Park is being developed in the Southern Economic Zone to facilitate this.
In 2018, the Financial Times ranked Debrecen as the city with the best investment promotion strategy among small European cities. In 2020, Debrecen was ranked second in the same category, while Debrecen was ranked in the top 10 of the world’s best investment promotion destinations, along with global cities such as New York, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Berlin in 2021.
