“FAG’s new bearing plant, which was realised with an investment of 25 billion forints (EUR 77.5 million), has created 500 new workplaces in Debrecen; the Government facilitated the investment with 3.16 billion forints in non-returnable funding”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced at the official inauguration of the company’s new production hall in Debrecen on Wednesday. FAG is part of the German Schaeffler Group.
In his speech, the Minister highlighted the fact that Hungary broke an economic record last year: 98 major new investments were realised or were begun in 2018 at a total value of 1380 billion forints (EUR 4.28bn). “Almost a third of these were made in Debrecen, which clearly indicates the success of the efforts of the city’s leaders and Members of Parliament”, he added.
“Over the past year more than 17 thousand new workplaces have been created thanks to these investments, and the average salary at these workplaces was 420 thousand forints, which is 40 percent higher that the average wage of the workplaces created in the previous year”, Mr. Szijjártó detailed.
With relation to the fact that the country has ended every one of the last five years with an economic record, the Minister said: “Hungary is one of the winners of the new global economic era” and has laid the foundations for the digital economy, industry 4.0 and long-term economic growth.
He pointed out that last year Hungarian exports exceeded 100 billion euros, and this investment and export performance is enabling Hungary’s economic growth to remain at 4 percent in the long term.
Mr. Szijjártó said a recent poll according to which 84 percent of the German enterprises operating here would invest in Hungary again was important.
In his speech, Member of Parliament Lajos Kósa (Fidesz) drew attention to the change in economic approach in the spirit of modernisation, innovation and digitalisation. “Competitiveness must also be achieved in economic policy, and since 2010 the Hungarian Government has been following a different path than its predecessors with relation to economic policy, and this is beginning to show in the economic results”, he highlighted.
Mayor of Debrecen László Papp (Fidesz-KDNP) told the press: last year, Debrecen also closed a record year with relation to investments and job-creating investment projects; in 2018, a total of 1.3 billion euros in investment was realised in the city.
The Schaeffler Group’s regional director Rainer Lindner and Operative Director Andreas Schick both confirmed that the company is committed to developing its activities in Debrecen. Thanks to the latest investment, the number of staff employed by FAG, which currently stands at 1600, could exceed two thousand in the upcoming years, they indicated.
Managing Director of FAG Hungary Péter Szabó recalled that the company began operations in 1999 at the site of the former Hungarian Roller Bearing Plant with a staff of 40 people.
The twenty-year old company now manufactures 25 million tapered roller bearings and 500 million tapered rollers annually at its 58 thousand square metre facility in Debrecen’s new industrial park, the Managing Director added.
(MTI)
