After a 13 percent increase in the first seven months of the year, the Hungarian automotive industry reached a production value of HUF 6,600 billion, and "there is a real chance that despite the recessionary environment" it will reach HUF 10 trillion, emphasized Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, on Tuesday in Győr, the at the handover of the expanded tool factory of Audi Hungaria Zrt.
The head of the ministry pointed out that Hungary has become a clear European stronghold of automotive modernization.
He added: in 2010, the production value of the sector in Hungary was HUF 3,600 billion, and last year it was HUF 9,300 billion. Today, 150,000 people work in the sector, and it has an export share of 90 percent, placing it in nineteenth place in the world automotive export ranking.
Germany is our country's largest trading partner, last year the trade turnover increased to almost 60 billion euros, and looking at the data for the first half of this year, this year "we can surpass last year's value", he said.
German companies continue to form the largest investor community in Hungary, and around 300,000 Hungarians work for German companies, he added.
Péter Szijjártó said that the growth rate of the Hungarian economy was over 6 percent in the second quarter, which is largely due to the fact that during the economic crisis that occurred during the coronavirus epidemic, the government decided not to support unemployment, but to prevent it.
Thus, thanks to the investment support program, the Hungarian economy can grow even now, and further investments are the guarantee for future growth, he said.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade reminded that the whole of Europe is threatened by a "deep economic recession" and that the continent is also facing a serious security crisis.
However, we Hungarians did not face challenges for the first time in the case of the coronavirus epidemic, because "practically 10-12 years ago we had to face different crisis situations", he said, adding that the common feature of these is that Hungary has always emerged stronger from these difficult situations.
Péter Szijjártó pointed out that "in the case of each crisis, we gave a specific Hungarian response that was definitely different from the international mainstream and focused on the enforcement of national interests."
He elaborated: when the southern border "came under siege", we built a fence, during the epidemic we did not wait for western vaccines, but also bought eastern ones, and during the economic crisis caused by the epidemic, one of the largest investment promotion programs in the history of the Hungarian economy was launched.
Péter Szijjártó also spoke about the fact that the government supported the HUF 3.8 billion expansion of Audi Hungaria Zrt.'s tool factory with HUF 1.2 billion as part of the investment promotion program.
With the development, the production and logistics capacity increased by 6,300 square meters, that is, the capacity of exclusive series production increased by 30 percent.
Source: Democrat
Image: Facebook
