The Bosch Group is yet another company to join the National Supplier Programme Working Group, Minister for National Economy Mihály Varga said at the ceremonial signing of a letter of intent on participation.

Through the Bosch Group, the window of opportunity opens for even more Hungarian small- and medium-sized enterprises to adopt the know-how of large enterprises and manage to meet their quality and performance standards, the Minister noted.

Speaking of the Bosch Group the Minister underlined that the company is the largest in Hungary, with more than 14 thousand employees. The Group has ten subsidiaries in the country and a wide network of suppliers. The Group’s development plans are in line with Hungary’s industrial policy priorities. That has convinced the Government to provide HUF 4.3bn for the upgrading of the M25 road that leads to the Bosch factory, he pointed out.

As Mihály Varga stressed the supplier development programme has been designed to assist Hungarian SMEs in adopting the know-how required for the paradigm shift brought about by industry 4.0.  As a result of the expected learning process, more and more Hungarian SMEs will manage to successfully penetrate international markets, he said. It is in the interest of both the Government and Hungarian producers to develop the existing supplier network, as cooperation between these two parties is indispensable for higher economic growth. The Bosch Group is a key partner in this regard, he added, as the company plays a major role within the Hungarian economy. The Minister also said that the development of enterprises could nowadays be directly assisted, thanks to stable and balanced economic growth and a prudent fiscal policy.

Mihály Varga stressed that -- along with the supplier development programme -- “model factories” created under the Government’s industrial policy blueprint, Industry 4.0, were also to contribute to the modernization of SMEs. The next step in the digitalization and automatization campaign is the Night of Modern Factories programme, thanks to which 25 production facilities will open their gates to the public on 25 November.

(Ministry for National Economy)