BUDAPEST, Hungary - In the halls of the Hungarian government ministries, John Parkerson is greeted as an old friend.

He was the one who took 17 Hungarians to an Atlanta Braves game last May during the Bio International Convention. For many of the Hungarians, it was their first baseball game. Mr. Parkerson arranged for the Braves to spotlight the Hungarians on the giant video screens at Turner Field.

When Mr. Parkerson, Hungary’s honorary consul for the Southeast U.S., arrived in Budapest July 30 for a visit, government leaders reciprocated his hospitality, taking him to lunches and dinners, giving him gifts of wine and after one meal, a Cuban cigar.

“You are in my country now,” Abel Garamhegyi, an adviser to Hungarian prime minister Gordon Bajnai, told Mr. Parkerson, presenting him with a bottle of Hungarian wine after breakfast at the Intercontinental Hotel in Budapest.

The two reminisced about the Braves game and discussed economic and trade issues. They talked about the possibility of setting up a meeting with the prime minister when he travels in the fall to a United Nations meeting in New York.

As honorary consul, Mr. Parkerson is the official link between Hungary and the Southeast. But on a personal level, he is developing close friendships with a growing list of Hungarian government and industry leaders, connections he believes will eventually lead to increased trade and business relationships with the Central European country of 9 million people.

GlobalAtlanta traveled with Mr. Parkerson to Hungary to report on his relationships in that country at a time when personal relationships are increasingly cited as an essential - at times the essential - component of international business.

Trade mission launched connection

Mr. Parkerson is not of Hungarian descent. He is of Scots Irish ancestry, a Georgia native, retired U.S. Army officer and former international attorney for Delta Air Lines  Inc. who is now director of international programs at Clayton State University. He also maintains a small international law practice at FSB Legal's Atlanta office. 

On a reciprocal trade mission to Atlanta in mid-2005, Mr. Parkerson was entertaining a Hungarian delegation that included András Simonyi, Hungary’s ambassador to the U.S. One night, the Hungarians wanted to go to a blues club. Mr. Parkerson took them to Blind Willie's in Virginia Highland.

During the performance, the ambassador boasted, “I could play with those guys.” Mr. Parkerson thought Mr. Simonyi was kidding and replied, “No, you can’t; Hungarians can’t play blues.”

The ambassador persisted and during a break, Mr. Parkerson arranged to have him play guitar with the blues band, starting off with a rendition of “Hoochie Coochie Man.” Mr. Parkerson and Mr. Simonyi became close friends, with the ambassador inviting him to events at the Hungarian Embassy in Washington.

Later that year, Delta began exploring a direct flight between New York and Budapest, which would make it the only U.S. carrier to fly directly to Hungary. As an attorney for Delta, Mr. Parkerson was in charge of the legal work for the flight. He took the inaugural flight to Budapest as did Mr. Simonyi.  They sat together on the return flight to the U.S. and Mr. Simonyi asked Mr. Parkerson to become honorary consul for the Southeast U.S.

Small Hungarian community, but ties grow

There is a small Hungarian-American community in Georgia, numbering only about 5,000 people. There are no Hungarian companies here. It is even hard to find Hungarian wines in Georgia or a Hungarian restaurant.

Yet, the business ties between Hungary and the Southeast U.S. are slowly increasing. NCR Corp., which announced in June that it is moving its corporate headquarters to the Gwinnett County suburb of Duluth, has a factory in Hungary. NCR also plans to build a factory in Columbus, Ga.

The biotechnology industry in Hungary is growing, with companies seeking U.S. partnerships. On his recent trip to Hungary, Mr. Parkerson held follow-up visits  with biotech executives who attended the May convention in Atlanta.

“Financing nowadays for Hungarian companies is very difficult,” Gyorgy Retfalvi, CEO of Hungary’s Investment and Trade Development Agency, told GlobalAtlanta. “They are usually very small by international standards as their history is short. It’s a big asset if you have a cooperating U.S. partner.”

One of Hungary’s big advantages for foreign investment is its location in central Europe. German automaker Daimler AG, maker of Mercedes-Benz, last year announced plans for a $1 billion plant in southern Hungary. Volkswagen AG has an Audi factory in Hungary.

“Whatever is not moving as far as China is finding good ground in Central Eastern Europe,” said Mr. Retfalvi. “We have a lot of well qualified people at a fraction of the Western European cost. In Germany, the people would cost you three to four times as much as a similarly qualified Hungarian person.”

Hungary is also attracting an increasing number of non-manufacturing jobs, many from U.S. companies, said Mr. Retfalvi.

Companies such as Exxon Mobile Corp. and Morgan Stanley are putting regional service centers in Hungary, providing financial, accounting and technology support for their offices throughout Europe.

“What you do in 30 countries with 3,000 people you can do with 1,500 people in one location,” Mr. Retfalvi said.

A tumultuous history

Just 20 years ago, Hungary was under communist rule, a member of the Soviet bloc. The country’s conversion in the late 1980s to a Western-style democracy marked the end of a bitter, 70-year period that was not kind to Hungary.

It was on the losing side of both world wars. When Europe’s maps were redrawn after World War I, Hungary lost nearly two-thirds of its territory.

Hungary sided with Nazi Germany in World War II and late in the war was occupied by both German and Soviet troops at the same time.

The Germans and the Soviets fought in the center of Budapest, with the Germans blowing the bridges over the Danube River to slow the Soviet advance. There are buildings in Budapest that still show the scars of the fighting.

Nearly 60 percent of Budapest was destroyed in the battle. The Soviet Union occupied Hungary after the war, installing a communist regime and crushing a 1956 pro-democracy revolution.

Flying into the Budapest Ferihegy Airport, visitors can still see evidence of the communist years, with row after row of architecturally bland concrete high-rise apartment buildings.

Downtown Budapest, however, retains its old world charm with a near magical beauty, particularly at night. The old bridges and buildings have been rebuilt and are illuminated. Towering over the Danube is a castle where the Hapsburg royal family lived when Hungary was part of Austria-Hungary, an alliance disbanded after World War I.

Budapest is filled with coffee shops and outdoor cafes. Built over hot springs, the city is known for its thermal baths and spas.

 “It’s unique,” said Andrea Wurmb, a tour guide in Budapest. “There are 129 functioning hot springs within the city. Show me another capital that has the same thing. There isn’t any.”

Hungary does not try to hide its troubled past. One of its top tourist attractions is the House of Terror museum,  which is housed in the former headquarters of the Hungarian political police.

There is also a Holocaust museum devoted to the Hungarian Jews killed during the Nazi era. And there are tours of the Jewish ghetto, which was walled and fenced in late 1944 so that its residents could not escape.

Approximately 10 percent of Hungary’s gross domestic product is from tourism, a sector that has taken a hit from the recent global economic downturn. Tourism is showing signs of a rebound and Hungarian officials believe that the lower costs of food, hotels and attractions here relative to other European cites will make it increasingly attractive to cost-conscious travelers.

Hungary’s unemployment rate currently stands at just below 10 percent, which has jolted the former communist country accustomed to full employment.

The government’s response to the economic crisis has been to cut social benefits and raise some taxes while lowering others.

Women were formerly guaranteed three years of paid maternity leave. That has been lowered to only two years. The retirement age for Hungarians will be gradually raised from 62 to 65.

Zoltan Mester, Hungary’s state secretary for competitiveness, believes the way out of the economic crisis is to lower the cost of doing business, encouraging entrepreneurs to launch new companies.

“We are still paying the price of the people wanting the state to do everything,” Mr. Mester told GlobalAtlanta. “Unless you do something for yourself, no one else will. There is no free lunch.”

At a time when many trade recruiters from the U.S. spend much time in China, India and other large emerging markets, Mr. Parkerson believes Hungary is a treasure that is off the beaten path, and yet has enormous untapped potential.

“When I think of Hungary, I think of history, I think of culture, I think of food, I think of wine,” Mr. Parkerson told GlobalAtlanta in an interview beside the Danube.  “Here you have a hard-working populace. It’s like a sponge waiting for further development to take it to the next level. There’s nothing not to like about Hungary. “

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