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executive summary
Scheduled for early 2018, America Center of Central Europe
is currently considering applications from U.S. states, counties and
Economic Development Organizations
to represent their interests in the Central Eastern European region.
Similar to how U.S. Embassies worldwide represent the federal government,
America Center will be advancing the interests of selected state level
governments and organizations.
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About America Center
Initially slated to accommodate 5 to 8 states or counties, America Center provides an opportunity for selected states and counties to pool the resources required for a Central and Eastern European presence. We work in cooperation with U.S. Embassies and U.S. Commercial Service offices to serve the states, counties and businesses we represent.
America Center is operated by KD Consulting Kft, an international trade consulting firm with over 15 years of experience in transatlantic business. Our network of employees and consultants include former Department of State and Department of Commerce employees, as well as other talented individuals with a combined total of over a century of experience.
American Center is the first trade development organization in the Central and Eastern European region to focus on serving customers in the United States. With the C.E.E. region showing one of the highest GDP growths in the European Union, there is also an opportunity to assist a new wave of business from the region with investing in the United States.
America Center's primary aim is to
- Foster American economic growth by helping U.S. companies sell their products in Central Eastern Europe (C.E.E.);
- Create jobs in the United States by identifying and assisting C.E.E. companies that wish to enter the U.S. market as investors;
- Promote tourism to selected American states;
- Establish transatlantic links between universities in the U.S. and the C.E.E. region;
- Strengthen cooperation between U.S. and C.E.E. research institutes on R&D and innovation projects;
- Pioneer cultural ties between the United States and the Central Eastern European region.
Photo: Lajos Hajdu / Pbase.com/laja30
Source: The Economist, February 2016
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why central and Eastern europe?
Our office is located in Budapest, Hungary, with a consultant network that serves the entirety of the Central Eastern European region. Home to over 90 million people and covering an area roughly equivalent to the land east of the Mississippi, the countries of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Croatia and Slovenia offer a significant market for US products and services. All of these countries being members of the European Union, market entry barriers are low to none.
More than 25 years after the collapse of Communism, the C.E.E. countries are the fastest growing economies of the European Union. At the same time entering these market may require individually tailored approaches due to the significant cultural and linguistic differences. The new generations that grew up after the fall of the Iron Curtain possess a strong entrepreneurial spirit resulting in many startups and openness to new ways.
A number of European, American and other international companies have set up greenfield investments throughout the region to supply products into the European market. Total foreign direct investment into these C.E.E. countries totaled over $568 billion in 2016, shaping very strong economic links with industrialized nations. Correspondingly there is a large and developed market for businesses to enter the C.E.E. market as a supplier to investors.
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what we offer to U.S. states, counties, economic development organizations
&
Their local businesses
Help U.S. businesses enter the C.E.E. market
Our staff at America Center has over a century of combined experience in assisting US and other international companies with entering the Central Eastern European markets. We help foster economic growth in the United States by offering the following services:
- Research custom tailored market reports
- Conduct a business partner search where we arrange face to face meetings with prospective and qualified partners
- Organize trade promotion events such as sales seminars, grand openings, product promotions and other PR events
- Prepare company background check reports
- Assist with mergers and acquisitions, including due diligence
- Promote major trade fairs in the United States for CEE companies to visit
- Help US-based economic development organizations (EDOs) to find and meet with their overseas counterparts
- Organize industry specific delegations or trade missions where companies from both sides of the Atlantic can share best practices and explore future business potential
Create jobs by identifying and assisting CEE companies that wish to invest in the United States
After more than 25 years following the collapse of Communism in the CEE region, and a hard turn towards market economies, local companies have grown in strength and business acumen to a point where they are beginning to look beyond their established European markets. We locate and assist these companies in their quest to enter the US market via setting up a sales or manufacturing presence. To this end, we will
- Present regular US inbound investment seminars in the CEE region;
- Lead sector specific investment delegations to represented US states;
- Cooperate with chambers of commerce and industry, and other multipliers, to identify investment candidates;
- Create an investment database to simplify matchmaking between vetted partners.
Promote tourism to represented states
Increasing purchasing power of C.E.E. citizens opens up previously unexpected opportunities for tourism in the United States. After the travel restrictions incumbent to totalitarian regimes of the 1980s and before have disappeared, C.E.E. consumers have enjoyed visa-free travel to other European nations for decades now. More and more are exploring travels off the beaten path.
The Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia are among the 38 countries that qualify for the Visa Waiver Program, which enables business or pleasure travel to the United States for up to 90 days without obtaining a visa. We wish to assist our represented states in attracting travelers from these, and other C.E.E. countries by
- Holding tourism promotion events in the C.E.E. region;
- Coordinating media campaigns to attract tourists to hundreds of U.S. destinations;
- Cooperating with travel agencies and U.S. travel boards to develop specialized or themed organized tours;
- Organizing custom tailored trips to the U.S. that combine both business and leisure;
Photo: Negative Space / StockSnap
Photo: Matthew Henry / StockSnap
Photo: Lajos Hajdu / pbase.com/laja30
Photo: Marc Olivier / StockSnap
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Our Team
America Center of Central Europe is operated by KD Consulting Kft. Our main staff and primary consultants are featured below.
Gábor kaczmarczyk
Co-founder of America Center and joining our team full time on July 1, 2017, Gábor worked for the U.S. Embassy in Hungary between 1991 and 2005, and then again between 2015 and 2017, spending most of his time as a Commercial Specialist with the U.S. Commercial Service. His other work experience includes an HR consultancy firm, a bioethanol manufacturer and an oil and gas exploration firm. His industry sector expertise includes automotive, chemicals, energy, environmental technologies, FMCG, franchise, industrial processes, machinery, manufacturing, and oil and gas exploration.
Daniel Szöllõsi-Nagy
Co-founder of America Center, and founder of KD Consulting, Daniel was educated in France and the United Kingdom before returning to his native Hungary. He worked part-time for the U.S. Department of Agriculture office in Budapest before joining the U.S. Commercial Service office between 2001 and 2004. His other work experience includes an IT security firm, a call center operator, a web analytics firm, and an oil and gas exploration firm, where he was IT Manager between 2010 and 2015. His industry sector experience includes agriculture, aviation, defense, information technology, oil and gas exploration, and telecommunications.
Katalin snieder
Katalin's family has been in construction for generations, which also set her up for her career. Graduating a civil engineer, she has been working for general constructions before 2008, specializing in steel structure engineering work since. Her expertise focuses exclusively on the construction sector, where she has a wide network of contacts.
Mónika Harsányi
The most recent addition to our team, Mónika has many years of experience in program coordination and organization, business assistance and destination marketing, especially in tourism industry. She worked years in the Hungarian state directorate of tourism as a personal assistant to a high-level state representative, and for a tourism marketing company as a regional coordinator. She has excellent knowledge of tourism service providers, domestic and in/outbound trends, and of organizational structures that connect to the directly or indirectly to tourism industry. Mónika also runs her own tourism consulting firm at www.meetushungary.com
jUlianna kaczmarczyk
Julianna studies economics at Corvinus University in Budapest. She helps our team as an intern on a project basis, gaining valuable experience in international trade consulting. She will graduate in 2018.
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CONTACT US
We are excited to hear your ideas on how America Center of Central Europe might be of assistance to you. Let us know if you'd prefer to schedule a call to discuss your plans.