Nagykanizsa

Nagykanizsa is a medium-sized city (48 339 inhabitants in 2015) in South West of Hungary, close to Lake Balaton and the Croatian border. Traditionally, the city was a meeting point of five historic routes, thus for centuries Nagykanizsa has been a connecting link between the Adriatic-Alpine region and the Habsburg Monarchy, playing an important role in the trade.

After the Turkish occupation, until the end of the 19th century, Nagykanizsa slowly became a modern town and a lively business, trade and craft centre again. Similar to the rest of the country, World War I had fatal consequences on Nagykanizsa which lost its markets in the south and west as a result of the new borders. Oil played a crucial role to survive and after the war Nagykanizsa became the centre of the Hungarian oil industry.

Today the city is well-connected by the nearby motorway (from Budapest to Croatia and through Slovenia to Italy) and is located in the 2nd most developed region of Hungary - Nyugat- Dunántúl (which in 2012 was the only region in Hungary - except Central-Hungary Region - exceeding the national average GDP/capita). However, the city is located is the less-developed county within the region (Zala). The most important industrial sectors in Nagykanizsa are:brewery, furniture, and light source and logistics due to General Electric’s very large light bulb factory opened in the city.

Concerning general trust (trusting in individuals), which has a crucial role while opening up public services, Hungary finds itself between Western Europe and the former socialist states. The distrust in political institutions is especially high most likely because of the real and assumed corruption of politicians, despite the fact that Hungary’s level of corruption is not the highest among former socialist countries.