Korean investors will continue to be major stakeholders of the Hungarian economy, Minister of National Economy Mihály Varga said in Seoul, following a meeting with leaders of South Korean enterprises.
The Republic of South Korea is the third most significant non-EU investor in Hungary, he pointed out. For companies contemplating investment in the country it is a key factor that plenty of foreign and multi-national companies have been operating successfully in Hungary, and these enterprises have been expanding production capacities through more and more investment projects, he added.
The Minister met, among others, with executives of Samsung Electronics and car parts manufacturer Woory Industries. At the talks, Mihály Varga stressed that since 2010 the Government has implemented a string of reforms to bolster the country’s competitiveness and facilitate FDI.
The Government’s new re-industrialization blueprint, the Irinyi Programme, focuses on boosting the domestic manufacturing sector. In this scheme, companies that are already active in Hungary – such as Samsung Electronics, Hankook Tyre, Daewoo or LG – as well as future investors may play a major role. One of them is Woory Industries, which is planning to build a car parts manufacturing facility in Hungary.
Samsung Electronics was the very first Korean investor in Hungary, Mihály Varga recalled. The factory was opened in 1989, as the result of a project of USD 50 million in Jászfényszaru. The production unit, which nowadays employs some 3000 people, is one of the largest and most state-of-the-art facilities for TV sets. It has produced some 62 million sets over the past 25 years.
The fact that Samsung Electronics has been active in Hungary for almost three decades and it has continuously upgraded production signals that we are capable of providing a reliable business environment for foreign companies even in the long term, Mihály Varga emphasised.
(Ministry for National Economy)
