SZABOLCS-SZATMÁR-BEREG COUNTY

Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County covers 5.936 square kms. It is bordered by Slovakia, Ukraine and Rumania.
The county is large and densely populated. It covers 6.4% of the county’s area and accounts for 5.6% of its population.
Water has always played a major role in the shaping of the land as well as in people’s lives. The soil is mostly sand. The overwhelming part of the area used to be marshlands that were drainded and turned into agricultural land.
The second largest river of Hungary, the Tisza flows through Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County.

The county has retained much of the landscape, flora and fauna of the Great Plain as it existed in the prehistoric times. It has a nature reserve, eight conservation areas of national significance and 26 other protected natural values.

In Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County the four historic churches, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical and Greek Catholic have co-existed for centuries. This has created a religious tolerance that manifests itself in religious as well as everyday life.
In the county agriculture and the related food industry have traditionally been the leading sectors.

Radical reforms began in agriculture in 1990, and brought about a drop in the livestock and yield as well as the dwindling of the labour force, a national phenomenon. But here, the rate of decline stood above the national average.

Industry - mainly the food sector the textile and leather industry the chemical industry and engineering - is the main employer.
Retail trade and catering are the leading branches of the service sector. The sales of food products have grown both in amount and value. Because the number of self-sufficient farms fell, towns grew in terms of size and population. Also, a lot of people from the neighbouring counties come to Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County to buy goods.

Transport and trade as well as education and social and health services are also significant in terms of employment. The number of people working in administration has risen in the past few years.

The banking services are slowly becoming client-oriented. Today, middle-sized banks dominate the scene, many of them in joint Hungarian-foreign ownership.

Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg, a border county has always put emphasis on establishing international links.
By now links have been created with countries in the East as well as in the West. The main fields of co-operation with countries in Eastern Europe are economy and culture. The partners encourage the direct co-operation of enterprises.

The county has established links with regions alond the border in the neighbouring countries with Slovakia, Ukraine and Rumania but it has links with Austria, Germany and Netherlands, Denmark and the United States of America.

For the county was one of the less developed regions of Hungary but Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county was the first county to elaborate a development policy and project, and set up the organizations to implement them. This reflects people’s dedication and enthusiasm.