Economy of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg

The county of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg in eastern Hungary borders three countries, and it is the only county bordering Ukraine. The railway crossing the border towards Ukraine is well developed, with high capacity and is thus able to satisfy the requirements of transit traffic and of bilateral trade. Following the reconstruction of the road border crossing, the county is also able to cope with increased road transportation.

Several regions in the county have tourism potential, so far mostly unexploited. Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg has several agricultural products of excellent quality, with capacity for higher production. There is an abundance of low-cost labour.

The county's biggest problem is the economic crisis. There is a shortage of local capital and inward investment, which restrains the creation of new jobs, thus the second highest unemployment rate of Hungary has not decreased enough. The performance of industry lags behind the rest of the country and the product structure is unfavourable with not enough high quality, high value-added products. The labour force has low qualifications on average. The quality of soils is relatively poor, thus the scope for economical agricultural production is limited to a few products, which, at present, are suffering from the shrinking of the eastern markets.