Through the 28 developments implemented within the European Union-funded project of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, more than 11,500 participants took part in 39 new or renewed specialized training programs, while 61 new methodological handbooks were created to further enhance the effectiveness of Hungary’s foreign economic and diplomatic advocacy.
When the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade was established in 2014, the reorganization of foreign affairs administration aimed not only to perform traditional diplomatic functions, but also to place stronger emphasis on representing Hungary’s foreign economic and trade diplomacy interests. In line with this objective, the flagship project “Development of Human Resource Management and Internal Training System at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade” focused primarily on increasing the efficiency of foreign and economic diplomacy professionals. This was achieved through improving the IT infrastructure that supports recruitment and training processes, developing the Ministry’s internal training and continuing education systems, and establishing the Foreign Affairs and Trade Knowledge Base. As a result, the project made it possible to train professionals with up-to-date expertise and strong diplomatic competencies who are highly capable of representing Hungary’s foreign policy and economic interests on the international stage.
The project created an integrated IT framework — the Foreign Affairs Human Resource Management and Training System — that provides comprehensive support for both the application and preparation processes for foreign service postings. Through this single platform, applicants for long-term foreign assignments can access the application interface, preparatory learning materials, examination system, and the Foreign Affairs and Trade Knowledge Base. This database offers extensive resources on foreign and trade-related professional knowledge and supports the development of individual competencies and acquisition of sector-specific expertise for ministry officials.
Funded by the European Union, the project primarily enabled a comprehensive development of the professional competencies of public administration officials — along with the tools and technical conditions supporting them. However, its results have become more widely accessible: 24 of the methodological handbooks are publicly available through the Foreign Affairs and Trade Knowledge Base, while the workshop series for municipal administration professionals, e-learning materials, and four e-learning courses accessible via the Probono platform also contribute to broadening knowledge in the field of foreign affairs and trade. Furthermore, applications are now available to the public through the KHOR “external recruitment interface” via the Government Authentication Agent (KAÜ) service.
In addition, to support digital export promotion and development, an online database — HYPER (Hungarian Yellow Pages for Export Reconnaissance) — and its coordinating body, the Digital Export Development Knowledge Centre, were launched. These platforms provide information on state and domestic digital solutions. The project also offered specialized expert support to help Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with competitive digital products and services improve their digital export capabilities and prepare for entering international markets. This support substantially contributed to increasing the international visibility of these companies — a mission that consortium partner DJN Ltd. continues to pursue beyond the project’s completion, building on the foundations established within the initiative.
The development was implemented from EU funding in the project KÖFOP-2.1.4-VEKOP-16-2016-00001 under the Public Administration and Public Service Development Operational Programme.
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