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Hanon Systems, one of South Korea’s largest automotive suppliers, will create 250 new jobs in Székesfehérvár (central Hungary), Pécs (southwestern Hungary), and Rétság (northern Hungary) with a HUF 43 billion (EUR 112 million) investment, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced. He stressed that as part of the project, the company, manufacturing vehicle parts, will carry out various developments and capacity expansions, and is also planning to provide comprehensive training for 200 workers.
The investment, worth HUF 43 billion (EUR 112 million), will be supported by the state to the tune of HUF 5.7 billion (EUR 14.8 million), contributing to the creation of 250 new jobs, reports Magyar Nemzet.
Minister Szijjártó noted that the company has 53 factories in 21 countries around the world, thus Hungary was in fierce competition for the investment. He said that
the automotive sector’s production value reached HUF 12,000 billion (EUR 31 billion) last year, a record high, and this year another 16 percent growth was recorded by the end of October, hence new records are expected.
Szijjártó also pointed out that one of the main changes in the new global economic era that has emerged in the wake of the crises of recent years, is that the hegemony of the Western economy has disappeared and Eastern companies have not only caught up, but are now setting the pace in many industries. Ten years ago, 80 percent of global investment was Western capital and only 20 percent was Eastern.
Today, this has been virtually reversed, with Eastern capital taking the lead everywhere,
he highlighted.
As a result, there is increasingly fierce competition in Europe for investment from large Eastern companies, and one of the main reasons for this is the high dependence of Western manufacturers on Eastern suppliers in the key sector of the continent’s economy, the increasingly electric car industry.
“This is why we Hungarians are convinced that we must not put up barriers and obstacles to East-West economic cooperation, but rather create bridges and opportunities for cooperation,” he added.
We are basing our foreign policy strategy on common sense and mutual respect, with the aim of making Eastern and Western companies feel equally comfortable in Hungary,”
he emphasized.
On the results of the opening up to the East, the minister said it was a real success story, noting that an increasing number of Asian companies are choosing Hungary as the location for their first European factories, bringing advanced technologies, and creating jobs. He explained that last year, 48 percent of investment was from Eastern Europe, 42 percent from the West, and around 10 percent from Hungary, which is a healthy and balanced split.
Korean investors have also played a key role in the expansion of the electric car industry in Hungary, as three of the world’s top ten electric battery manufacturers are Korean, and two of them have large factories here in Hungary,”
the politician pointed out.
He noted that South Korean companies are now the fourth largest investor community in Hungary, and bilateral trade has seen a staggering increase, with volumes up by more than 50 percent this year, reaching nearly USD 7 billion by the end of September.
Via Magyar Nemzet, Featured image via Facebook/Hanon Systems
