Debrecen will be the center of the region
After a multi-year hiatus, the DEVik Business Innovation Club organized a student meeting at the Boiler House on Tuesday afternoon under the title Debrecen 2.0. László Papp, mayor of Debrecen, gave a lecture on the city’s strategy and development to the invited guests at the sold-out event. The city manager introduced the series of official professional events for the students of the University of Debrecen, which had its heyday just when Covid intervened. But, as he said, despite the epidemic situation, life did not stop in Debrecen. Moreover, it has accelerated so much that it is doubtful whether we can enjoy what is happening around us. After all, at one moment the city achieves something, and you have to concentrate on the next task. He revived, among other things, that the construction of the BMW factory is now a natural process in Debrecen, even though it had moments of uncertainty. However, the development of the city goes back much longer.
László Papp mentioned that, quite by chance, he was elected a municipal representative on October 18, 1998, and – as he put it – since then he has had the opportunity to influence the events of the city.
Later, as mayor, he saw it as a great thing that Debrecen is a strategic center of the Northern Great Plain region, but the real goal was for the city to reach an unavoidable position. According to the mayor, this has been achieved so far, and strengthening the economy plays a key role in this. “A city that strives for a leading regional position can only achieve this with a strong economy,” he said. He added that 7-8 years ago it was evident that Debrecen was a well-developed city in terms of urban infrastructure. However, a link was missing that makes this structure viable and self-sustaining: a strong economy.
He explained that the basic foundation for this is for the city to have an industrial development strategy, the basic element of which is sufficient industrial space.
– At that time, 150 hectares of developable land were available in Debrecen. For this reason, we spent most of the European Union funds for the period between 2014 and 2020 on the development of industrial areas. This was a decision involving a serious risk, since the billions buried in the ground must attract real investors, he explained. As an example, he humorously mentioned that when investors are shown an area in the southern border of the city where cattle graze, they take the investment seriously with reservations. therefore, it was necessary to build the utility and IT networks. All this was done successfully, on the agreed deadline, so in eight years the city increased its industrial area tenfold.
Today, Debrecen is among the thirty largest cities with industrial areas in Europe.
László Papp considers it important for the city to maintain its regional leadership role, because this does not preclude the emigration of local, talented young people. He emphasized that the University of Debrecen is one of the best embodiments of the city’s expansion policy. However, high-quality training is useless if the city does not have the strength to retain the skilled workforce.
The mayor pointed out that the explosive economic development has a huge impact on the life of a city of 200,000.
Both in terms of transport, the housing market and cultural life, as well as the structure of the city. He reminded that, while in the eighties industrial estates were concentrated in the eastern part of the city, around Vágóhíd Street, today residential areas surround that part of the city. Therefore, in order to avoid conflicts, they tried to connect the new industrial areas as far as possible to the expressway network on the west side of the city. This puts a strain on the city’s road network. The construction of the eastern bypass serves this purpose, and there are plans to create a truck terminal near the northwest industrial park, which will provide an opportunity to move the administrative out of the city.
Regarding the recently announced CATL factory, he noted that, according to concerns, Debrecen’s water supply is fully secured even with the investments.
In addition to water obtained from underground aquifers and through the Keleti main canal, the Civaqua program also provides the city with plenty of water. proposal negotiations are underway with the Chinese battery factory to preferably use purified wastewater instead of pure water for technological production processes. He emphasized that he is aware that CATL is a sensitive issue for the people of Debrecen, but they would not make a decision that would have a negative impact on the environment in exchange for economic interest. László Papp also touched on the fact that the city does not only focus on foreign investors. Debrecen is the first municipality in Hungary to launch a special program for small and medium-sized enterprises. The goal was to provide the same conditions for SMEs that are separate in the Southern Industrial Park, so that it is available to large companies.
This is how geographical proximity and the chance of becoming a supplier were given. As he said, there is considerable interest in the program, the second and third phases of which are also planned to be launched.
Since the industrial parks will soon be full and Debrecen can slowly “post the closed sign”, László Papp considers it important that the education system can also keep up with economic development processes. Both the University of Debrecen and the Vocational Training Center of Debrecen play an important role in this. transport development is also a serious challenge for the city. And it is at least as important to ensure cultural life and welfare developments. Summarizing, he said that Hungary used to tilt towards the west in terms of the economy and the labor market. What the city of Debrecen has established and carried out in recent years, by 2030, it will move the scale towards the east. The city’s industrial performance will be as much greater than that of the capital and Pest county combined. The concentration experienced in western Hungary after the regime change entailed the emigration of young people. Debrecen also felt this seriously. However, the situation turns the dice. And the city seized the opportunity for change at the best possible time.
HL