“The Bosch Group and Robert Bosch Electronics Limited is expanding its automotive industry parts manufacturing plant in Hatvan. During the course of the 9.6 billion-forint (EUR 30 million) investment project, the company will be installing new equipment that enables faster production”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced in Budapest on Thursday.
“The world is undergoing significant changes, state-of-the-art technologies and developments are rapidly gaining ground in new development projects, and the Hungarian economy, including the automotive industry, is also experiencing an era of dimensional transition”, the Minister highlighted.
“Bosch’s plant in Hatvan manufactures technological equipment and components that determine the future of motoring, and which are indispensable to automated driving”, he emphasised. “Based on a special cabinet decision, the Government is providing 1.2 billion forints in non-returnable funding for the project, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2020”, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade indicated.
“There is increasingly stiff competition for new investments at global level”, he highlighted. “These investments are bringing to Hungary modern technologies that previously belonged to the realm of science fiction”, he added. “Hungary can be rightfully proud of the fact that the work of the Hungarian people, the performance and state-of-the-art technology of the companies operating in Hungary, and the Government’s economic policy have together enabled Hungary to clearly become one of the winners of this global shift in industrial dimension”, Mr. Szijjártó said. “A major role in this was also played by the fact that we have created one of Europe’s most attractive investment destinations and centres in view of the fact that the corporation tax paid by enterprises in Hungary is the lowest in the European Union”, he added.
“The Government recognised the particulars of this dimensional transition, and has reorganised its investment promotion system so that the level of technology brought by an investment is what now counts towards its assessment, rather that the number of new jobs it creates”, he emphasised.
“The added value created by new investments in Hungary, and the research & development content of these investments, is continuously increasing”, Mr. Szijjártó highlighted. “As an indication of this, the average salary paid by new investments that began operation in 2018 increased to 425 thousand forints, 40 percent higher than in the previous year”, he said.
“Bosch is one of the Hungarian company groups that employs the most workers, and it played a major role in the fact that Hungary’s GDP increased to 4.8 percent last year, and in the fact that today, there are over 4 million 480 thousand people working in Hungary”, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade indicated. “The latest investment by Bosch is the third investment that approaches or exceeds 10 billion forints. These investments are bringing technologies to the country that develop and increase the quality of the whole Hungarian automotive industry. Bosch’s vehicle electronics sector already employs 5500 people in Hungary”, he said.
“Bosch has also played an outstanding role in the fact that Hungarian-German economic cooperation fundamentally determines the performance of the Hungarian economy”, Mr. Szijjártó highlighted. “During the first eleven months of last year, German-Hungarian trade flow exceeded 50 billion euros. The final figures will be published next week, and we expect to have achieve the highest bilateral trade flow of all time with Germany”, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade indicated.
(MTI)
