WOW! Western think tank chose Budapest as the most business-friendly city in emerging Europe this year

Moreover, the Hungarian capital won in 2 categories out of the 8 and could precede Eastern European capitals and cities like Tbilisi, Łódz, Bucharest, Sofia, Tallinn, Warsaw, and Prague. Emerging Europe‘s founding partner said about Budapest that it “is a magnificent city with a great business ecosystem and a long history of innovative ideas”.

According to emerging-europe.com, Emerging Europe distributes awards in 18 categories, and one of them is the most business-friendly city of the year. The category looks at seven aspects: business climate, infrastructure and connectivity, smart solutions, a pool of talent, quality of life, local authorities’ support, and economic potential. Finally,

global location experts rank the cities taking part in the contest. 

In this case, Emerging Europe invited 70 global location experts and foreign direct investment advisers to decide about the 75 cities in the emerging Europe region which are national capitals or have a population of more than 200,000. The region consists of the following countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine.

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“Budapest is a magnificent city with a great business ecosystem and a long history of innovative ideas,” Andrew Wrobel, Emerging Europe‘s founding partner, said about the Hungarian capital receiving the award. “It has an incredibly strong brand, and it’s no surprise that the location experts we asked to vote recognised that. But I am also delighted that several other cities caught their eye. We want to promote opportunities in the region’s cities, and one of the main reasons we organise this survey is to make location experts, who take important decisions regarding where to locate investment, take a long, hard look at the emerging Europe region. I think that this perception-based survey demonstrates just how much these experts already know about our region, and I am glad that we have taken a key role in bringing that about,” he added.

Budapest won by a wide margin

and was first in two subcategories, in Brand, as well as Local Authority Support. The other subcategories were won by Tbilisi (Economic Potential), Łódź (Business Climate), Bucharest (Pool of Talent), Sofia and Tallinn (Smart City Development), Warsaw (Infrastructure and Connectivity), and Prague (Quality of Life).

The Czech capital fell behind Budapest, while Warsaw, the capital of Poland, came third.

About the Georgian capital,

Tbilisi, experts said that it was one of the easiest places in the world in which to do business.

Therefore, it regularly tops the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings for emerging Europe.

The Polish Łódź attracts investors with its good location, low cost of business activity, and qualified staff, the city’s mayor told Emerging Europe. The Estonian capital, Tallinn, won the subcategory of smart city development, which is not surprising since the Baltic state is one of the global leaders of digitalisation.

This is the third time Emerging Europe has distributed its awards, and they will announce more winners in the different categories later in June.

Source: emerging-europe.com