City Snapshot

Region                 Eastern Europe
Country               Hungary
Population            More than 1,733,680 people
Service Providers   EPAM, Dell, Capgemini, Nokia
Languages           Hungarian, English, German
Time Zone           CET (UTC+1)

As the main center of Hungary’s outsourcing activities, the city of Budapest has been receiving good amount of attention. Being the country's capital and the largest city, the place serves as the base for most of its industrial and economic activities. Budapest started off mainly as a shared services and BPO location around two decades back. Over the time, BPO activities have spiraled off in the city and its huge potential as an emerging location has been bringing in significant investments to the location. High on innovation and technical capabilities, the city is also an established location for infrastructure management services, software testing and research and development activities.

Service providers in Europe and US have been setting up and expanding operations to make advantage of its specialized capabilities, while Indian service providers are also targeting the place in order to maintain a nearshore presence in the European market. The city accounts for most of the country’s ITO and BPO investments. Its major attraction is its pool of talented workforce that also comprises of graduates fluent in English and German. The city has a solid education system that serves as the foundation for its growing outsourcing sector.

According to Nasscom, Hungary holds around 25 per cent share of the IT outsourcing market in Eastern Europe. Major part of its economic activity and population is strongly concentrated in Budapest, indicating the importance the city holds in the country's outsourcing sector. The city accounts for almost half of the country's GDP and also is a major financial hub. Employment rates are impressive, as around one-third of the employed workforce can be found here. Moreover, this region has attracted around two thirds of the country's foreign direct investments in the last decade. Infrastructure outsourcing is the leading segment in this market. BPO activities are going strong with demand for HRO, procurement and F&A increasingly rapidly.

Some Prominent Facts

In terms of development and quality of life, Budapest ranks quite high. It is one of the fastest growing cities in Europe and EIU’s quality of life index also ranks it as the most livable city in Central and Eastern Europe.

Ranked 3rd (out of 65 cities) by Mastercard's Emerging Markets Index and “Europe's 7th most idyllic place to live" by Forbes, Budapest is one of the most prominent outsourcing locations in Europe.

It is the highest ranked Central/Eastern European city on Innovation Cities' Top 100 index. Budapest is home to the headquarters of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), and the first foreign office of the CIPA. It is also considered to be one of the safest cities for offshore and nearshore outsourcing.

Budapest has a solid education system and is considered to be Hungary's center of education, with numerous universities offering higher level courses primarily in business, technology and economics.

Budapest accounts for a major chunk of industries across Hungary. Nearly all branches of industries can be found in the cty. Main areas are communication engineering and computer appliances, electric machines and pharmaceuticals.

Budapest is the center for many industrial and economic activities like financial counseling, money transactions, commercial and estate services. Trade and logistic services are well-developed. Tourism and catering is another prominent sector in this area.