The Minister said that the Hungarian investment structure is healthy: 48 percent of investments came from the East while 42 percent from the West and the remaining 10 came from Hungarian sources. He added that the majority of investments went towards the electric car industry.
For us Hungarians, we can have no other goal than to stay out of this recession and maintain the rate of development of the Hungarian economy. The only way to do this is to bring as many investments as possible to our country. These create workplaces which produce results which generate economic growth
– explained the Minister.
According to Péter Szijjártó, it is more significant than ever that another investment record was broken this past year; the amount invested in Hungary over the course of 2022 was an unprecedented sum.
He highlighted that the government’s investment incentive program plays an important role in all of this: they have put a lot of resources into making Hungary a meeting point of both eastern and western economies.
He explained that today, the real economic meeting point of East and West is the electric auto industry. He said that soon the big Western European, German car manufacturers will put a stronger emphasis on producing electric cars. This requires electric batteries which are mainly produced in the East by China and Korea. However, Hungary now represents a good meeting point for both economies.
Péter Szijjártó went on to say:
Hungary by now has become the European champion of the automotive sector’s transition to electric vehicles. And because construction of Europe’s biggest electric battery plant is not set to get underway until early next year, Hungary is also a realistic candidate for the world championship title.
The Minister also reported that 73 percent of incoming investments this year were tied to the electric car industry. Forty-three percent of this went towards electric battery manufacturing and 30 percent towards automotive investments focused on electric or hybrid solutions.
Péter Szijjártó mentioned that the traditional Hungarian sector, the food industry, also received double-digit investment rates at 10 percent. Another eight percent of investments went to service centers which is significant because most college-educated young people who speak several languages work within this field.
The Minister said that this past year posed extraordinary challenges both in foreign policy and in the economy.
“When we brought the consequences of the pandemic under control, we were under the impression that we had overcome a difficult period that we would not have to experience again for some time,” he said, adding that unfortunately this was not the case. Since February we all have had to deal with extraordinary challenges due to the war.
“The European economy is heading towards recession due to the war and the thoroughly flawed sanctions imposed by Brussels,” he declared. He believes that the longer the war lasts and the more sanctions Brussels passes, the more difficult things will get for the European economy.
“Meanwhile, those who stand to profit off of a spiralling European economy make more and more off of the situation,” he noted.
Photo: Szijjártó Péter Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Photo: MTI/Máthé Zoltán)
