The high-tech Chinese investment is the largest of its kind in Hungary's historyContinue reading
In the largest ever investment in Hungary, worth some HUF 3000 billion (EUR 7.4 billion), China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL) will directly create 9,000 new jobs in Debrecen, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced on Monday.
The Minister said that the world’s largest battery manufacturer had chosen Hungary to build its second European plant after two and a half years of negotiations, following huge international competition. He stressed that this is one of the five largest greenfield investments in Europe in the last ten years.
“This makes us the third country in the world to have a CATL plant after China and Germany.” He added that the project will also receive state aid, the details of which will be made public later, following the completion of the notification process with the European Commission.
Péter Szijjártó also underlined that
apart from Germany and China, Hungary is the only country with a manufacturing base for all three major German premium car brands: Audi, BMW, and Mercedes,
which are planning to make Hungary an important part of their electromobility strategy, so construction is planned to start in a hurry until 2025, as there is a high demand for batteries.
He said it was a “clear testimony” to the performance of Hungarian economic policy that in these two “black years” for the world economy, marked by the coronavirus epidemic and the war in Ukraine, the two biggest ever investments were announced last year and this year.
The minister recalled that
the Hungarian automotive industry’s output has increased two and a half times since 2010, with production value approaching 9,500 billion forints (EUR 23 billion) in 2021.
He added that the opening up to the East had proved successful despite the attacks. “We have put our entire foreign policy and our relations with the world to our east on a basis of mutual respect,” he said.
In this context, he welcomed the fact that the investment will help Hungary emerge from this crisis stronger than the crises of recent years. Finally, he praised Hungarian-Chinese relations, pointing out that last year bilateral trade had reached a record high growth of 11 percent, the first time bilateral trade volumes had exceeded 12 billion dollars, and that the growth rate in the first half of this year was seven percent.
Featured photo: MTI/Vajda János
