NTEC was founded in 2002 by the Council of Ministers of Kuwait with 350 million USD in starting capital to serve as a subsidiary of the Kuwaiti Investment Authority. Partnering with the Hungarian National Innovation Office, NTEC is primarily tasked with promoting technology investments into Kuwait with a higher added value.

According to the memorandum, market-ready projects, technologies and patents from both Hungary and Kuwait will form the foundation for the exchange of information between the institutions. A key element of the cooperation will be identifying Kuwait-based enterprises involved in innovation and attracting contribution from Hungarian experts to developments in Kuwait. At NIO, we intend to assist in improving NTEC’s Technology Enterprise Center (TEC) with Hungarian expertise creating opportunities for Hungarian innovation-driven ventures to gain a foothold in the region. The MoU signed in November is expected to produce results in the commercialization of Hungarian scientific and technological achievements within Gulf states.

As dr. Mészáros put it right after signing the agreement: „In terms of cooperating with countries around the Persian Gulf we reached a milestone with signing this MoU. Two days of meetings have convinced me that our experts – especially in the field of engineering – are in high demand. The management of NTEC was eager to know more about results in info-communication technologies and life sciences, as well as technological advances with a higher added value in diagnostics, energy and renewables. The idea of opening a Hungarian technology transfer office in Kuwait City also came up during the talks. NTEC leaders expressed their intention to learn more about the most promising Hungarian projects in innovation at a workshop to be held in Budapest during the spring of 2013.”