The managing director of CECZ said the investment is expected to be completed in a year and a half, helping make Hungary a centre of e-commerce in the region.Continue reading
Hungary’s leading e-commerce service provider, eMAG – Extreme Digital is building a huge warehouse in Dunaharaszti, near Budapest. The company’s HUF 35 billion (EUR 87m) investment will create 600 new jobs in the town in the medium term, said Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó.
Bucharest-based eMAG, one of the largest online retailers of the CEE region, is building a 117,000 square meter regional logistics center that will serve the markets of six countries in addition to Hungary. The project, supported by the government with HUF 4.8 billion (EUR 19m), will help create 350 jobs in the first year.
According to Szijjártó, the investment is a major victory in regional competition, and will create opportunities for small and medium-sized Hungarian enterprises (SMEs) to participate more effectively and competitively in the Central European retail market.
Szijjártó stressed that the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the daily lives of people and has contributed greatly to the further growth of e-commerce, which now accounts for nearly 20 percent of the total global retail trade.
Adapting to the challenges of a new world
In Hungary, the share of online purchases reached two-thirds by 2020 and rose to over 70% last year.
Whether we like it or not, that is how it is, and we have to adapt. Not just consumers, but also small and medium-sized businesses that used to sell through traditional channels,
Szijjártó said, adding that SMEs need help to modernize.
The minister said that the transition trends are extremely favorable for Hungary, which stands to benefit a lot from the electronification of trade. “Our geographic location and our infrastructural development predispose us to succeed in this new field.”
“The logistics sector has recently become one of the flagships of the economy.” The sector is responsible for 28 percent of services exports, which represents an increase of roughly 45 percent in a single year, the foreign minister added.
Featured photo by Zoltán Máthé/MTI