Besides the perception of the current situation among economic operators, business outlook also improved significantly.Continue reading
The leaders of German companies decide on investments in Hungary not on the basis of press reports, but on the basis of their own experience, so bilateral economic cooperation will continue to develop as long as it is based on reality, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in the Southern town of Pécs on Monday.
Speaking at the announcement of the investment by German-backed Körber Hungária, the minister said that the plant, which specializes in the production of food and tobacco machinery, will expand its capacity and increase its efficiency as part of the HUF 5.6 billion (EUR 14.7 mil.) development.
Péter Szijjártó. Photo: MTI/Kiss Dániel
The company, which employs around 1 200 people, will also build a solar park as part of the project, which will receive 850 million forints (EUR 2.2. mil.) in state aid, he said. He pointed out that Hungary is the second largest site of the group, which has more than twenty-five production centers on four continents, and that there was strong competition for the investment just announced.
This proves that businessmen are thorough people, and German businessmen especially, and that they make decisions based on experience, not press reports. As long as Hungarian-German economic cooperation is based on reality, it will continue to develop, as we are seeing here in Pécs,”
he said.
He then stressed the importance of the project in maintaining economic growth and full employment, and also highlighted the sustainability aspects that the government considers important.
Szijjártó underlined that in the past decade and a half, the world has been stumbling from crisis to crisis, and a new order is emerging.
Our goal here in Hungary is not merely to survive these crises, but to be stronger after each one than we were before,”
he said.
“And when we list Hungary’s economic allies, the first place is clearly Germany, because investors from Germany are the largest investor community today, and we also have the largest trade turnover with Germany,” he added. The minister said that Hungarian-German economic cooperation had continued to grow stronger even during the crisis, which was one of the main reasons why Hungary had emerged stronger from the difficulties.
He said that under the investment promotion scheme launched in 2014, 187 German companies had already received support for investments worth a total of HUF 4,000 billion (EUR 10.5 bln.).
Meanwhile, he said that bilateral trade turnover exceeded a record €67 billion last year and could reach €70 billion by the end of this year, helped by the fact that in 2023, Germany will be the second largest investor in Hungary after China.
Via MTI; Featured Image: Pixabay