It is one of the Government’s key economic policy goals to increase the industrial output-to-GDP ratio from the current 23 percent to 30 percent by 2020, Minister of State for Economic Regulation Béla Glattfelder said at a car industry career forum in Győr, Western Hungary.

As the Minister of State pointed out, the 23 percent figure is already above the EU average and the European Union aims to improve this indicator only to 20 percent by 2020.

He added that road vehicle manufacturing output accounts for 30 percent of total Hungarian manufacturing sector output and in July 2015 this sub sector expanded by 18 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. This was achieved thanks partly to the performance of Audi Hungaria Motor Ltd, as the company produced more than one million engines and 84 thousand cars in the first half of the year and thus reached the highest ever output volume.

Béla Glattfelder stated that boosting road vehicle manufacturing output is also important as some estimates are predicting that the volume of car sales will triple globally by 2050. Vehicle manufacturers, he added, must also tackle technology shift issues, as manufacturers which fail until 2020 to cut per-unit CO2 emission will face EU fines of up to EUR 3.5bn. (While the current upper limit of CO2 emission is 130 grams per kilometres, this must be reduced to 95 grams per kilometre by 2021). This technological change will result in more electric and self-driving cars, the regulation of which is constantly improving. As an example he mentioned that self-driving cars are already permitted to be tested in Hungary.

The Minister of State emphasised that skilled labour is gaining importance and he welcomed the fact that the Győr local government, the István Széchenyi University and local enterprises have joined forces to improve the vocational training system and boost the performance of the industrial sector.

(Ministry for National Economy)