The 52 companies that have signed strategic partnership agreements with the Hungarian government have created nearly 14,000 jobs this year in Hungary, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in Budapest.

At the Strategic Partnership Forum, organised for the first time with the aim of starting a new tradition the Minister declared that Hungary’s recent economic achievements would not have been possible without its strategic partners.

DownloadPhoto: Márton Kovács

In his speech addressed to the representatives of the government’s strategic partners, Minister Szijjártó emphasized that the 52 companies, who on average have a proportion of Hungarian suppliers of 65 per-cent, have significantly contributed to reaching Hungary’s national economic goals, such as export expansion for example.

The Minister noted that in 2010 the government set the objective to transform Hungary into the production hub of Europe. In 2014, a further objective was added: to attract as much innovation and info-communication capacity to Hungary as possible.

The main goal in this regard is for Hungary to take the number one position in the European Union in terms of industry’s contribution to GDP and export’s contribution to GDP. The third important objective is for Hungary to have the highest per capita foreign direct investment (FDI) in the region, he said.

DownloadPhoto: Márton Kovács

According to the Minister, the strategic partners have helped Hungary challenge two dogmas previously thought incontestable: the first one being that an economic crisis can only be overcome without creating new jobs (jobless recovery) and the second one being that it is impossible to create new jobs and have a strict budgetary policy at the same time.

President of the Hungarian Investment Agency (HIPA) Róbert Ésik declared that the government intends to create the region’s most investor-friendly business environment in Hungary.

Oliver Schatz, head of the Budapest centre of German multinational Bosch said: the fact that the Board of Directors of Bosch has signed a strategic partnership agreement with the Hungarian government is proof for the German company’s trust in Hungary.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)