Dear Reader,

Having spent almost half a year with the Embassy, I thought it was time to introduce myself and my job to the wider public. You are all familiar with the term “Economic Attaché” but maybe you are not completely sure what an Economic Attaché’s daily work involves. If you are interested to learn more about it, I am happy to take you to a virtual tour.

So our tour starts with describing my major responsibilities. I gather data from a wide range of information sources, make a thorough analysis examining several aspects of the same issue and incorporating conflicting views from the part of different policy actors. As I joined the Embassy right at the start of the explosion of the global financial system, most of my reports have so far focused on the impacts of the credit crunch in Hungary and following the major macroeconomic developments and responses to the deepening economic crisis in the country. This has been a very busy and at the same time exciting period for economic policy and it has given me a lot of tasks to complete, e.g. reporting on the background and consequences of the IMF support, bank consolidation legislation, the debates around the approval of the budget, and the update of the Euro Convergence Programme. Agricultural policy is another big area in my portfolio, especially in the EU context.

Reporting is in itself a colourful task, but my responsibilities go well beyond that. Building a network of contacts is of basic importance in my job. There are a lot of opportunities for that both in the UK and in Hungary, such as participation in conferences, seminars, receptions, and even trainings. An interesting recent event was the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Economic Attachés’ Conference in London in December where I met colleagues from overseas Posts all around the world. Press breakfasts, academic and policy focused presentations are also good events to learn the views of senior economic experts of the Central Bank and the Financial Regulator, and leading figures of Hungary’s financial and economic life, such as the Finance Minister and Economy Minister. As economy and trade are interlinked, there are a lot of cases when I can work together with the Embassy’s Trade Officers, and this provides an insight of the world of investors and investments. Another field that is closely related to economics is politics so there are tasks to carry out jointly with the Political Officer. We take part in conferences, presentations organised not only by the government but also by opposition parties. Last week for instance we took part in a conference on the European Parliamentary elections for the invitation of Fidesz. It is important for Embassies to listen to both sides whilst maintaining absolute neutrality and not interfering at all with domestic politics.

With the aim of promoting UK policy, I not only take part in numerous events, but also my role requires me to contribute to organising Embassy events, including visits by senior officials. Currently, our team is finalising the organisation of the high-level kick-off event of a seminar series entitled "The Global Economic Crisis: Challenges and Opportunities for Europe". Several senior guests arrives from the UK to participate, including Sir Andrew Cahn (Chief Executive of UK Trade and Investment), and Gregor Irwin (Chief Economist of FCO). Hungarian Economy Minister Gordon Bajnai is also among the keynote speakers of this seminar. Organising such a big event requires good teamwork and I feel really lucky to be part of a team of enthusiastic, dedicated people. That’s an invaluable asset to work in such an inspiring environment.

This tour has come to an end for now, but if you are interested in our activities, just visit the Embassy’s website, learn about events that we organise, and register to participate. The "Global Economic Crisis" seminar series is approaching. Do not miss it!

Hope to see you there.

Dora Kulauzov
Economic Attaché

20 January 2009