“Economic and trade cooperation between North Rhine-Westphalia and Hungary fundamentally determines the further growth trajectory of the Hungarian economy”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó told reporters in Düsseldorf on Monday.

“North Rhine-Westphalia has become the German state from which the most investment arrive in Hungary, and the enterprises from here that operate in Hungary provide jobs to 49 thousand people and realise over 11 billion euros in turnover annually”, the Minister explained. “In addition, this is the German state that receives the third largest volume of Hungarian exports”, he pointed out. “It is very important that the enterprises from North Rhine-Westphalia that have invested in Hungary have clearly received the Hungarian Government’s proposed legislative amendments, aimed at further increasing the country’s competitiveness and improving the job market situation, which was previously regarded as a challenge, positively”, he stated. “In other words, in view of the challenges posed by the extremely low level of unemployment, enterprises from here have for a long time asked us to ensure that the workforce required for their increased investments will be available”, he explained.

“Regulatory proposals that make the Hungarian job market more competitive will enable the preservation of German enterprises’ willingness to invest in Hungary”, he pointed out. Mr. Szijjártó told the press that companies from North Rhine-Westphalia are fundamentally involved in the renewal of the Hungarian automotive industry, and are glad to bring new investments that belong to the innovative automotive industry era to Hungary. “These investments are important to the Hungarian economy because the Hungarian automotive industry provides 28 percent of total industrial output, and the future competitiveness of the Hungarian automotive industry is highly dependent on the level of modern investment in Hungary”, the Minister said.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)