On the western slopes of the Buda hills lies Budakeszi, a settlement of twelve and a half thousand inhabitants. It was made town on 1st July, 2000.
Past and present of Budakeszi entwine: excavations of thousand year old monuments in the centre of town are part of our everyday life. The village that was once built up along one main street today is overgrowing the functions of its small ring road. Still it has the atmosphere of nearby Nature: the gentle breeze of forests and hills. Whilst the neighbouring capital offers our citizens a great variety of work and entertainment opportunities our town is well equipped with a wide range of services. Few better places can be found for everyday family life relaxation, recreation, sport and useful free-time activities than Budakeszi.
We would like to see you in Budakeszi, a town with a wide range of services. Please brows our homepage with the same love as more and more Budakeszi citizens care for and improve the look of our town.

Mr. Gyula Farkas
Mayor

BUDAKESZI'S ECONOMY AND REGIONAL ROLE

1./ History of Budakeszi's Economy

Up until the last third of the 19th Century, Budakeszi's economy had been dominated by agriculture. However, the grape-louse spread over the vineyards at the end of the 19th Century completely destroyed people's living. It happened at the time of the imminent millenium; thus Budakeszi residents found work at the large-scale construction projects scheduled to be completed by the time of the millenium festivities in Budapest. This time also coincided with the beginning of industrialisation in Budakeszi.
The first board of craftsmen was founded in 1919, and in 1930, 60 different trades were pursued in the village. There were 144 craftsmen in 1938, when the Nagykovácsi Board of Craftsmen joined it with 41 members.
In the 1930's Elektromos Műszaki Rt. (Electrical Technological Co.) was the largest company in Budakeszi, while the Halfer-féle Márványozó Festékgyár (Halfer Marbling Paint Manufacturer Co.) was the most famous one. The latter company was founded by bookbinder József Halfer in 1902. He worked with a method that was unique in the world. The company produced a special paint used in the bookbinding industry. It had representative offices in most European towns and exported overseas. The NATTO Shoe Polish Manufacturer also brought Budakeszi fame. As of 1923, its products were demanded in more than 200 Hungarian settlements for 14 years. Budakeszi also had food industry. One such group was the Milk Association with 279 members and 540 business shares. The company, which operated with the most modern technology of the time, sold 3,000 litres of milk every day. It also produced various diary products.

Tourism started to boom simultenously with industrialisation. The village became a popular recrecation and vacation target. Budakeszi was already very well supplied with commercial goods in the early 20th Century. That is because it did not only have to care for its own residents, but also for the tourists. In 1930 the village had 101 retailers, including 15 grocer's shops, 9 butcher's shops (including the one owned by the father of current German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer), 12 bakers, 14 restaurants, 2 pastry shops, 2 cafes, 2 cinemas, omnibus companies, garages and a fuel station.
Budakeszi was connected to Buda with an omnibus service and a cab-coach service.  In 1928 there was the "Bart-pullman" service, while as of 1 January 1937, the bus service BESZKÁRT (blue buses) started operation. By this, the village also integrated into Budapest's mass transportation system, and became a crossing point in the traffic to and from neighboring villages.

After World War II Budakeszi's history was greatly influenced by the deportation of the ethnic German population, and the settlement of families from other regions, such as, e.g. Transylvania. Budakeszi needed time to recover from the destruction of the war and the deportation. Industrialisation stopped after the war, giving place to agricultural and forest management ventures (such as ERDÉRT, Erdő- és Vadgazdaság, Rozmaring TSZ, etc.). Up until the change in the political system, part of the external areas had been managed and farmed by the Budapest-based Training Farm of the University of Horticulture. Today, the forests, integrated into the Buda Nature Protection Area in 1978, are supervised, managed and farmed by the Visegrád-based Pilisi Állami Parkerdő Gazdaság (Pilisi State Forest Park Company). After 1989 Vadaspark (Wildlife Park) and Kincses-árok got under the supervision of Budapesti Erdészet (Budapest Forest Management Company).

While maintaining its character of a green-belt area Budakeszi\'s industry has remained limited to crafts. Its network of shops did not excpand as fast as its population. Inhabitants are still compelled to buy many consumer products in Budapest. This is also manifested in the annual amount that a Budakeszi resident spends on small consumer products every year: Ft 37,000. This compares to a national average of Ft 72,000.
Although Budakeszi has maintained its character as a tourist and hiking target, its infrastructure has not developed accordingly. At the end of 1988, the village only had seven catering facilities (one restaurant and one pastery shop, and five buffets or pubs).
Also the private sector contributed to the catering of the general public. In 1988 25 private entrepreneurs were involved in trading, or catering.

After the change in the political system the industrial development concept focused on attracting green-field companies that helps the town maintain its green-belt character.
By creating and expanding an Industrial Park Budakeszi has managed to attract a number of large, green-field companies.
Apart from industry and agriculture, the town\'s economy is also dominated by other branches and services. The employees by these companies account for 75 percent of all the people employed in the town. The most jobs are created in catering, education, healthcare and social care.
In 1990 a total of 14 state-run and cooperative-run retail facilities were operating in Budakeszi. Of them, four were food stores, while six were catering facilities. After the change in the political system, this sector saw a boom that has fundamentally changed and expanded the circle of services available in Budakeszi. In 1995, the town had 114 retail facilities including 42 food stores. The profile of the rest of the facilities is very diverse. Also, in the same year, Budakeszi had 38 catering facilities. The hotels and motels have a lot of foreign guests who can also exchange foreign currency to forints in most of them.

	1990	1995
Retail facility	14	114
Food store	4	42
Catering facility	6	38
Other	4	34

 

2./ Features of the presently operational corporations

A) Agriculture and Forest Management

The town mostly hosts agricultural and forest management plants. Agricultural services are provided by VITIS Bt. for the 114-hectare-large vineyard and the surrounding plough-land.
Also, there is the Pilisi Parkerdő Rt. Budakeszi Erdészete (Budakeszi Forest Management Unit of the Pilisi Forest Park Co.) that is involved in forest management and caring for and breeding of the wildlife.
Budakeszi Farmers\' Community: with a land of 10 hectares and a forest of 1,745 hectares. The community now has 250 members. The profile of the community is to protect the interests of the grape and wine producing members, promoting the quality and the marketing of their products, introducing and controlling origin- and quality protection systems withing the legal framework of a public board. The community also acts as a professional consultant and business service provider for its Budakeszi members.
Animal Keeping: Due to Budakeszi\'s urbanisation, the live-stock has significantly dropped and their keeping became limited to the areas outside of town. Statistics from 1998 list 42 cows and 150 pigs kept in Budakeszi. A lot of people have recently started to keep horses for hobby or sports. In the spring of 1998, there were 34 horses kept in Budakeszi, and only one of them was used for drawing a cart. Also, The town\'s 11 bee-keepers kept 280 bee families in the autumn of 1997. The most frequent animal is the dog. The people officially kept a total of 1,899 dogs in 1997, at least this is how many of them received the mandatory vaccines.

At this point, the farmers\' information officer works with the local circumstances taken into account. His main task is to provide farmers with fast and precise information, for example on the various state subsidies, state tenders, and professional consulting. In Budakeszi, 150 certified agricultural producers are operating and they produce various agricultural products. According to statistics, approximately 50 producers are involved in grape production on local soil, approximately 50 of them are involved in fruit production, while 20-30 of them keep bees. Now, the town does not have any operating agricultural cooperative.

B) Industry

The health-care institutions and hospitals built around Budakeszi greatly determined the town\'s employment pattern. Consequently, no greater industrial centers have emerged.
Also, the local government purchased land in the course of privatisations. This enabled the establishment of a green-field industrial zone with several factories and companies that employ people from the region.
With the new laws coming into effect in 1990, an increasing number of corporations have been founded and more and more people have become individual entrepreneurs. The combined number of these two kinds of businesses totalled 1,431 in 1999, as compared to 159 in 1990.

Total number of operating corporations or entrepreneurs:              1431
Of this: Number of legal entity corporations:                                 681
           Number of non-legal entity corporations or entrepreneurs:    750

The corporations and individual entrepreneurs are involved in the following trades: manufacturing of steel structures, concrete production, production and trading of of wrapping material, civil engineering, food production, medical aid production, car sale, production of knitted items, printing house, cloth manufacturer, production of cosmetic items, and dress making.

C) Trade and Services

In 1990, a total of 14 retail businesses were operating in Budakeszi. Of this, four were food stores and six were catering facilities. However, the town\'s retail structure has greatly changed over the last few years. Earlier, most of the retail businesses (such as the West Pest County Food Retailing Company) catering facilities were state-owned.
Later, however, this field saw a boom. In other words, the size, quality and profile of this field have changed dramatically.