The country is the flagship in the revolutionary transformation of the automotive industry, Péter Szijjártó said.Continue reading
A campaign is being waged to discourage German companies wishing to invest in Hungary. It is devoid of facts, purely politically motivated, and is already turning into a kind of emotional blackmail, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in Budapest on Friday.
Speaking at an event organized by German-Hungarian business organization DialogUngarn, the minister said, among other things, that the transformation of the automotive industry can no longer be reversed, as Western companies have become completely dependent on Eastern electric battery manufacturers.
He said that the government had pursued a political and economic strategy in recent years that had made Hungary a meeting point for Eastern and Western companies, making it inescapable, and that this represented a great opportunity and a lifeline for Hungary in terms of maintaining economic growth.
Szijjártó pointed out that, apart from Germany and China, Hungary is the only country with manufacturing capacity for all three major German premium car brands, and that three of the world’s seven largest electric battery manufacturers are already operating here, with capacity set to expand.
There are also very serious efforts to discourage German companies from coming to Hungary, from staying in Hungary, from investing in Hungary again,”
the minister warned. He stressed that these efforts are clearly politically motivated, not a fact-based campaign against Hungary. He reminded that the country has the lowest taxes on labor, the most stable political system in Europe, and a government that always delivers on its promises to investors.
He welcomed the fact that, despite this, German companies still make up the largest investor community in Hungary, with 6,000 companies employing some 300,000 people, and bilateral trade is growing steadily, breaking new records.
Featured photo via MTI/Kovács Attila