“The Modern Factories Night series of programmes creates an opportunity for links between modern Hungarian industry, strong Hungarian enterprise and the Hungarian people”, Minister for Innovation and Technology László Palkovics said on Friday at Knorr-Bremse Brake Systems Ltd.’s plant in Kecskemét, at the opening of the Modern Factories Night national series of programmes, which is being held for the third time this year.

“The plants can now present their highly automated activities, and the development and work opportunities they offer”, Mr. Palkovics emphasised. “Because the most effective way of having Hungarian entrepreneurs adopt modern technologies is if they can become personally convinced of their advantages”, he added.

Thanks to the series of programmes, Hungarian families can also experience in close proximity the fact that there are exemplary enterprises and international competitive industrial plants operating in their cities.

A visit to a modern factory by a young person could affect their career choice, and people who are already working could become interesting in trying out a new career.

The Minister pointed out that since 2010 the Hungarian economy has advanced from one of Europe’s tail-enders to become one of the continent’s most dynamically developing economies.

“GDP growth for the third quarter exceeded 5 percent, and total annual growth is also expected to reach five percent”, he added.

According to the Minister, the this dynamic growth is partially the result of the fact that in recent years a structural transition has occurred within the Hungarian economy, which has moved in the direction of state-of-the-art technology within the fields of both industry and services.

“According to IMF data, similarly to Germany and Denmark, the high-tech sector is responsible for some 70 percent of the added value generated by industry. In Poland, this ratio is 20 percent, and in China it’s 40 percent”, he explained.

“The growth of the high-tech sectors of industry is over double the average increase in performance, in view of the fact that this index has increase by 22 percent with relation to vehicle production and by the greatest extent, over 26 percent, relating to the manufacturing of computers and electronic products”, Mr. Palkovics emphasised.

As he explained, within the uniquely structured Hungarian economy, added value is provided to a roughly equal extent by international and domestic enterprises.

According to the Minister, however, sustainable growth requires Hungarian enterprises to take the lead and significantly increase their added value.

In the interests of this, since 2010 the Hungarian government has made over 1300 billion forints (EUR 3.88 billion) available to businesses in co-financing with the European Union, he pointed out. Over the past three years, the national Research, Development and Innovation Fund has funded the activities of small and medium-sized businesses with 100 billion forints (EUR 300 million) from the domestic budget. The Supplier Development Programme and Construction Industry Funding Programme have assisted Hungarian enterprises with 9 billion forints (EUR 26.8 million) and 28 billion forints (EUR 83.5 million), respectively, while the Irinyi Plan has provided 6 billion forints (EUR 17.9 million) to small and medium-sized enterprises he listed.

“The government’s goal is for the backbone of the Hungarian economy to be made up to an increasing extent by Hungarian-owned small and medium-sized enterprises. The is goal is also served by the strategy for the reinforcement of Hungarian micro, small and medium-sized enterprises developed with the involvement of over a thousand entrepreneurs and a host of professional organisation, the SME Strategy, the seven pillars of which include technological transitions, in addition to digitalisation, promoting innovation, and appearing on international markets.

“To help people become better acquainted with modern technologies, the Ministry of Innovation and Technology has initiated the Modern Factories Night series of programmes with national overage in 19 counties and Budapest, which is affording over 6 thousand visitors the opportunity to visit a total of 73 locations”, Mr. Palkovics added.

In representation of the organisers, Managing Director of Industrial Development Public Benefit Non-Profit Ltd. Gyula Barta-Eke told reporters: 25 plants and 2 thousand people took part in the Modern Factories Night series of programmes in the first year, and 36 plants and 2800 people in the second year, while this year 73 plants and over 6500 people are taking part. “One of the important goals of the program is to set examples: a host of examples are being presented with relation to the fact that nor only foreign-owned enterprises are capable of meeting challenges and of achieving world-famous results within the fields  of innovation and research & development, but so are Hungarian ones”, he explained.

Managing Director of Knorr-Bremse Brake Systems Ltd. Attila Bíró said: “Our company spends over one billion forints-a-year on technology development”. The company’s list of suppliers includes a host of small and medium-sized businesses, to whom the company not only passes on the experience and knowledge it has acquired during the course of its Industry 4.0 development projects, but it also encourages its partners to apply these.

He pointed out that this is the second time that the company has taken part in the national series of Modern Factories Night programmes, during the course of which the company shows visitor the manufacturing process of its brake systems for commercial vehicles.

(MTI)