By virtue of a number of new developments and investments, the alliance between Hungary and Audi is further intensifying, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó told the Hungarian News Agency MTI after his meeting with the Chairman of the automobile manufacturing company’s Board of Management in Ingolstadt, Bavaria on Thursday.
Mr Szijjártó said regarding his meeting with Rupert Stadler that the most significant player of Hungary’s automobile industry will further intensify its cooperation with the Győr Széchenyi István University, and as a result, a regional higher education, research and development, and engineer training centre will come into being in the city of Győr which will represent a „whole new dimension”.
Developments will be launched in the Győr Audi plant as well, which will aim to reduce the emission of pollutants and will be based on the utilisation of solar energy. Negotiations are also ongoing regarding the enlargement of the production capacity of the plant. It is to be hoped that „we’ll have some good news” this autumn, Mr Szijjártó said.
The reinforcement of the alliance between Hungary and Audi is further served by a transport infrastructure project in the magnitude of tens of billions of forints. As a result of this – with the construction of the eastern section of the M1 motorway bypassing Győr –, the logistic link between the Audi plant and the Bratislava manufacturing base of the parent company Volkswagen Group will further improve, and traffic within the city of Győr will be alleviated by the end of 2017, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade told MTI by telephone.
Speaking about the significance of Audi’s activities in Hungary, the Minister underlined that the company has been one of the most important actors of the Hungarian economy for 22 years, which is amply testified to by the fact that they have made investments worth more than EUR 7 billion in Hungary to date, and Audi is one of the „flagships” of German-Hungarian economic cooperation which has a fundamental impact on the performance of the Hungarian national economy. It is additionally the number one company of Hungary’s automobile industry.
The company operates the world’s large engine manufacturing operation in Győr, Mr Szijjártó pointed out, adding that the plant reached an historical record last year when they manufactured almost 2 million engines, and they broke another record in the first half of this year: they were able to raise their production figures both in terms of the number of engines and the number of cars made.
In consequence, Audi is Hungary’s largest exporter, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade stressed, remarking that in addition to employing more than 11,200 people in Győr, the company procures products and services worth some EUR 1.5 billion annually from Hungarian suppliers.
As a result of Audi’s ongoing capacity enlargement, the production of Hungary’s vehicle industry increased by 14.6 per cent in the first months of 2015, and the sector now employs more than 139 thousand people, Mr Szijjártó said.
During the course of his official visit to Bavaria, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade will also have talks with Andreas Scheuer, Secretary General of the conservative CSU party governing the German federal state. The most important topics will be the issue of illegal migrants and the related cooperation, the Minister said, pointing out: „Europe is quite clearly suffering from the challenge which is currently imposed by the unexpected wave of illegal migration at an unprecedented rate”, and Bavaria and Hungary are struggling with similar problems in the context of migration.
(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)
