CELEBRATING THE ROLE OF BUSINESS IN THE NEW EUROPE

This month, we celebrated 15 years of success in Hungary, the first country where we set up a network to carry out our mission.

When we were founded in 1990 to promote the role that business could, and should, play in sustainable development, we were inevitably highly focused in our early years in the region broadly described then as Central and Eastern Europe.

As one by one the countries in this region emerged from the control of Soviet Russia, enormous opportunities and challenges emerged. It was clear that for both sides there was some serious catching up to be done. What followed was, perhaps, the most fundamental and extensive transformation ever seen in Europe. This has included a radical overhaul of the judicial, governmental and financial sectors; health systems; education and enterprise; environmental stewardship and more.

We were busy across the entire region, and in Hungary, we initiated the creation in 1992 of the Hungarian Business Leaders Forum, with the strong support of our President, The Prince of Wales. Read more about the 15th anniversary event at the Hungarian Parliament.

To celebrate the anniversary, we have produced a short report telling the story of our work in Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Russia from 1992-2007 – read the report here.

New roles for each sector

In order to get to where we are now, each sector – business, civil society and government – has had to more or less re-invent itself and figure out what their respective roles and responsibilities should be.

This process was the beginnings of an understanding of the necessity of cross-sector collaboration between government, business, and not-for-profits – each with its unique contribution to make to problem solving.

“It is hard to believe that Czechs and Hungarians can today travel freely across Europe, that Spaniards and Swedes can set up businesses in Slovakia and Romania, and that Poles and Bulgarians are sought after employees across Europe. A reunited Europe was once a dream of millions. It is now a reality.”
Adrian Hodges, IBLF managing director

Above all, it was the start of building a different business perspective – with the realisation that business could offer many other resources besides money, including products, technical expertise, networks, manpower and experience. Business came to be seen as an opportunity for advancing reforms and accelerating industrial restructuring.

Based on our experience in Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Russia, we have produced some short summaries which detail what businesses, governments and civil society can do to help create an enabling environment for transition to democracy and a market economy.

Download the summaries for each sector:

10 things businesses can do to create an enabling environment

10 things civil society can do to create an enabling environment

10 things governments can do to create an enabling environment